
Class __^S_b 0_l 

Rook ■ .VL4-^ 
Copyright N"_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



PRACTICAL FARMING 



PRACTICAL FARMING 



A PLAIN BOOK ON TREATMENT OF THE 
SOIL AND CROP PRODUCTION ; ESPECIALLY 
DESIGNED FOR THE EVERYDAY USE OF 
FARMERS AND AGRICULTURAL STUDENTS 



BY 



W. F. MASSEY 

Author of "Crop Grozving and Crop Feeding^'' 




NEW YORK 

THE OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY 

MCMVII 



LIBRARY of CQNGKE9Sf 
Two codIm Kt)ct>i>/u-:) 

DEC 2 .907 

Co!)yrti;ni tnjiry 
CLhSS 4- ^^t- «y 






Copyrighted, 1907, by 
THE OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY 



All rights reserved 



PREFACE 

OF late It appears to be the fashion with authors 
I to call their Preface a ''Foreword," but I am so 
old-fashioned that I prefer to call it by the old 
name, Preface. 

You may ask, "Why a new. book on Agriculture?" 
Simply because in the numerous books for farmers that 
have appeared of late years I know of none that appeals 
directly to the man behind the plow in all sections of the 
country, and tries in the plain language of the farm to 
explain many of the things which the investigations of 
scientists have discovered in regard to the treatment of 
the soil and the production of crops. 

To this effort to explain scientific matters in plain 
language I have drawn in addition from the experience 
of a long life spent in the practical work of cultivating 
the soil, and have endeavored to make this a farmers' 
book on farming, nothing more, nothing less. 

Perhaps to keep up with the phraseology of the day, I 
should call it a treatise on Agronomy. But my old- 
fashioned notions come in again, and I call it "Practical 
Farming." Agronomy would sound more scientific, but 
I have not written the book for scientists, and therefore 
call it by a name that the plain tiller of the soil will under- 
stand. 

If he likes it and finds that it is helpful I shall be satis- 
fied. The day when all that pertains to farm life can be 



vi Prejace 

trt'ak'd in one small volume is past, nnd 1 have endeav- 
ored to stick to my text and write a book on cropping 
solely. It has been prepared in the intervals of a very 
busy life, and 1 hope it will help the men for whom it is 
inlt'nded. 

Philadelphia, Pa., 
March 5, 1907. 



CONTENTS 



Preface . 

I The Soil ....... 

!! The Physical Character of Soils . 

III The Relation of Soils to Moisture and Air 

IV The Anatomy and Physiology of Plants 
V Plant Food in the Soil .... 

VI Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 

VII Life in the Soil 

VIII Tillage and its Purposes 

I X The Washing of Soils and Methods of Prevent 

iNG This Loss 

X Crop Rotation — its Purpose and Practice 

XI Crops and Cropping 

XII The Indian Corn Crop 

XIII The Wheat Crop 

XIV The Oats Crop 
XV The Cotton Crop . 

XVI The Tobacco Crop . 

XVII The Irish Potato Crop 

XVIII The Hay Crop 

XIX How THE' Legumes Aid Us 

XX The Grasses . 

XXI Commercial Fertilizers for Various Crops 

XXII Useful Tables for Constant Reference 



PAGE 

V 

I 

22 
4' 

59 

79 

97 

"9 

'34 

•43 
148 
167 
172 
186 
198 
202 
217 

235 
247 
268 
274 
295 
304 



PRACTICAL FARMING 



CHAPTER I 

THE SOIL 

A GRICULTURE, or fanning, is an art that in- 
/ % eludes the character and formation of the soil as 
-i- JL well as its proper tillage to make it productive 
in the crops needed by mankind. When we look around 
us and see the great variety of conditions as to soils and 
climates, and the composition and origin of the cultivated 
soil, as well as the conformation of the surface and the 
great variety of plant growth which arises under these 
varied conditions, we realize that the art of farming is a 
very complex one. 

Its complexity is such that we have to call in the aid of 
a number of sciences to assist us in understanding agri- 
cultural conditions. Geology tells us something of the 
origin, formation and conformation of soils; chemistry 
tells us of the elements that enter into their composition; 
botany teaches us the nature of the plants that make up 
our crops, and meteorology helps us to understand the 
conditions of weather and climate, and their influences 
in modifying land surfaces and in the promotion of plant 
growth. 



Practical Farming 



Modern agriculture is largely the child of chemistry, 
and its future development must always depend to a 
great extent on the investigations of the chemist. But 
closely aUied to this science is the science that takes in 
the study of life, and helps us to understand the life of 
the low forms of i)lant life that make diseases on our 
crops, and tcaclies us how to combat these and the insect 
enemies that annoy us. The science, then, of biology 
becomes a very essential aid to the farmer. 

Our work is mainly the study of the soil and its treat- 
ment in the production of crops. 

The science of geology treats of the for- 

TheGeologi- ^-^tion and <j;rowth of the outer crust of the 
cal Origin ., . " . , . . . , 

of Soils globe. It mvestigates the composition ot the 

crust, the processes which have contributed 
to its growth through the long untold ages since the earth 
was a molten mass, and the elemental influences that have 
helped to bring the earth into its present form. This 
science takes into consideration the elevation and depres- 
sion of the land, the formation of rocks of various sorts 
under and above waters, and the decay and wasting of 
the rocks that make the foundation of the soils that cover 
the outer surface. 

Geologists have found that the crust of the earth has 
been formed in successive layers kno\Mi as strata. It is 
evident that as these layers have been placed one above 
another by various causes, the uppermost layer must be 
the youngest, unless by some cataclysm of nature the rocks 
ha\e been pressed together and thrust one under the 
other. This is always evident from the foldings and 
faults, so called. Where upheavals through volcanic 



The Soil 3 

action have thrust rocks from below through the mass 
above, forming traps or dikes, the nature of the rock 
itself demonstrates its origin. 

If we dig a well we come first to what we 

Formations ^^^^ ^°^^* '^^^^ ^^ darkened in color by the 
decay of vegetation. Then we find a bed of 
clay, and below this sand. It is evident that the sand 
was there first, owing to its superior weight, and that 
the clay and soil were afterward deposited on top of it. 
Then, if we find another bed of clay under which is a 
bed of sand, we can easily determine that there were 
successive deposits elevating the land. In a similar way 
geologists have studied the growth of the layers or strata 
that make up the thousands of feet accumulated on the 
surface of the original earth crust. If the geologist bores 
into a bed of sandstone and below that finds a bed of 
coal, formed from the decay of vegetation, it is evident 
that this vegetation must have grown on the original 
surface, and that the sandstone was of later formation. 
When under the coal he finds a bed of clay loam with 
the roots of the old forest penetrating, he is strengthened 
in his belief as to the formation of the coal. 

Again he finds a bed of Umestone filled with the fossil 
remains of shellfish and coral — the plainest evidence that 
living creatures formed these shells and coral before the 
soil was formed and before trees grew from which the soil 
was formed, and that the Umestone formed from their 
remains must be older than the coal formation above 
them. When under this limestone there is found a differ- 
ent rock that further on projects into the surface of the 
hills, he would argue that this rock, being under the 



Practical Farming 



limestone, is the oldest, though in the hills it comes to the 
surface. He would be convinced that in the valley there 
had been agents at work forming the later accumulation 
on top of this older rock. 

When the earth was a molten mass, glow- 
Agencies at jj^ ^.ji^i^ intense heat, the waters that after- 
Work in Sou ^ , ^ , , ' , 
Formation ward formed the great deep were a dense 

vapor, lighted only by the glowing globe. 
Gradually, through long ages, the surface cooled and God 
said, "Let the waters be gathered together unto one place, 
and let the dry land appear"; and it was so. The cooling 
of the surface allowed the condensation of the vapors,* 
and the waters naturally filled the depressions in the sur- 
face. Thus seas were formed. The dry land was the 
hard rock crust crystallized. 

Then came the action of the various agencies to which 
we owe the formation of what we to-day call soil. This 
condensation opened up the surface of the earth to the 
light and action of the sun. We must understand that 
light, sunlight, is one of the phenomena of motion; and 
that one of its rays travels through space at the rate of 
186,000 miles in a second of time, a rate utterly incon- 
ceivable to us. The energy of the sunshine awakes in 
nature energy of a different sort, resulting in what we call 
heat. The rays of the sun excite motion in the molecules 
of the soil and water, causing them to be pushed apart; 
and by the radiation of heat set the atmosphere in motion, 
causing wind. Much of the heat formed goes back to the 
air through this radiation, especially during the nights. 
In the long nights of the arctic regions more goes back 
than in the tropics, and differences of climate are largely 



The Soil 5 

due to this. Even in the temperate regions, when the 
nights grow much longer than the days, we find that we 
approach the arctic conditions; and when the days grow 
longer and the nights are shorter, we approach the con- 
ditions of the tropics, where days and nights are even 
throughout the year. 

It is thus clear that the heat produced by 
of Sunshine ^^^ action of the sunshine on land and water 
becomes the great agency in producing plant 
life on the earth. We must realize that the rays of the sun 
move through a vast space of intense cold, and that heat 
is a transformation of the motion made here on earth, 
and its intensity depends largely on the conformation of 
the earth itself. Down about the sea level, where the pres- 
sure, and consequently the density, of the atmosphere is 
greatest, the radiation is slower and heat is retained longer, 
while on the mountain top the lesser atmospheric density 
permits of a more rapid radiation; so that on the more 
lofty mountains we have arctic conditions of eternal snow 
and ice. On the surface of the sea the rays of the sun set 
up a rapid motion in the molecules of the water, making 
them warmer until they are changed into a condition of 
vapor and fly off to form clouds, which distribute the rain 
on the earth. 

We can now see how the disintegrating effect of the heat 
produced through motion from the sun affected the rocky 
surface of the earth, and the coming of the clouds from 
the ocean washed to the lower levels the loosened particles 
and started the first formation of soil. 

Then came the work of the atmosphere itself. At 
the sea surface the pressure is about fifteen pounds to 



6 Practical Farming 

each square inch, and each acre of land bears a pressure 

of 46,200 tons. The decreased pressure of the air causes 

a decided change of feehng as we ascend 

The Work ixora. the sea level to the summit of a high 
of the .,,,„,., 

Atmosphere mountam, though we hardly reahze the pres- 
sure at the sea level, and when it is removed 
do not directly think of this change as causing our new and 
strange sensation. Pure air is composed of oxygen and 
nitrogen, two gases mixed together but not chemically 
combined. The nitrogen exists as a diluent to enable us 
to breathe the oxygen, for it comprises a much larger per- 
centage than the oxygen — 79.051 per cent, of nitrogen to 
20.949 per cent, of oxygen. Exactly how deep is the 
ocean of air, at the bottom of which we live, cannot be 
known; but it is usually estimated at about forty-five 
miles. While the air is composed primarily of these two 
elements, oxygen and nitrogen, it also carries with it other 
matter useful to the farmer. A small percentage of car- 
bon dioxide, commonly known as carbonic acid, which in 
large quantities is deadly to animal life, is essential to 
vegetation. Plants get their carbon from this combina- 
tion, as will be explained later. The air also contains 
some nitrogen in combination, in the form of ammonia, 
as well as the free nitrogen gas and a minute portion of 
oxidized nitrogen or nitric acid. Still another constituent 
is that extremely active part of oxygen known as ozone, 
which is esteemed of great value to animal life. From 
this air and the matters it contains plants get more than 
97 per cent, of their material for building the tissues, and 
less than 3 per cent, from the soil. But for the air and its 
constant pressure there would be no heat retained on the 



The Soil 7 

earth, as we have sho\\Ti by the case of the high moun- 
tain where the decreased pressure allows rapid radiation. 

Professor King, in his book on the soil, quotes the work 
of Professor Langley, who, "after making a long and very 
careful experimental study of this property of our atmos- 
phere, at the base and summit of Mt. Whitney, in Cali- 
fornia, reached the conclusion that, had our earth no 
atmosphere, its surface temperature, even at the equator 
at noon, would be 200 degrees C. below freezing, or 
—328 F." The radiation of heat from the earth is always 
greater in cloudless weather, and on bright moonlight 
nights in spring we are apt to have killing frosts, not 
because of the moon, but because of the clear atmos- 
phere at such times. 

One of the most active agents in the trans- 
Soil Builder formation of the original rocks into soil is 
water. We can to-day study its continual 
work by merely examining the hills and roadsides after a 
heavy rain and noting the transportation of the soil from 
higher to lower levels. In connection with water the 
frost has been one of the most efficient agents in breaking 
down the rocks. Water getting into the small crevices of 
the rocks freezes, and by its expansive force breaks off 
the particles which the rain washes down. In this way 
every exposed rock is still made to contribute slowly to 
the soil below. 

When life began upon the earth there evidently must 
have been vegetation of some sort, since vegetation is 
essential to animal life. We find that even in the oldest 
rocks now known, rocks that have been transformed by 
heat, and which hence contain no animal or vegetable 



Practical Farming 



remains, there is a great store of carbon in the form of 

graphite or black lead, the material from which our lead 

pencils are made. Now, as we know of no source from 

which this carbon could come but from the carbon dioxide 

in the air, and the only way in which this can become 

fixed as carbon is through the action of plants, taking the 

carbon through their leaf-green, it is assumed that there 

must have been a vast amount of vegetation burned up in 

the metamorphosis of what are now the oldest rocks 

visible on the earth. Then in later ages, as the action of 

the heat, water, and air gave to plants some soluble food, 

there began a growth of vegetation. 

The evidence of geology is that the only part 

The First ^j ^y^q American continent above the seas in 

American ,1. . , ^ . 

Land ^^^ earher ages consisted of a strip across the 

continent in Canada known as theLaurentian 
formation, from which extended a strip down where the 
Appalachian system of mountains was formed. All the 
great interior was occupied by a vast inland sea, extending 
from what is now the Gulf of Mexico to the arctic regions. 
There was a slow elevation of this interior, and the inland 
sea became a series of swampy flats to which the vegeta- 
tion gradually added by its decay. The remains of this 
vegetation show that there was a climate of great warmth 
extending far northward, and intense moisture in the at- 
mosphere. Plants that are now of a very lowly form, 
such as our mosses and ferns, then grew to an immense, 
tree-like stature, since plants of that character are better 
fitted to use large quantities of carbon dioxide than the 
plants of modem times, and the atmosphere was too full 
of this poison to animal life to permit their existence in 



The Soil 9 

the higher forms. The great moss trees were the means 
used by the Ahnighty to remove the excess of carbon 
dioxide from the air, and thus gradually fit it for the use of 
higher and higher developed animals. Age after age the 
old moss trees grew and fell, and on their remains other 
vegetation flourished entirely unlike the trees and plants 
of to-day. After a while the earth again settled, and the 
sand and earth covered the great accumulation of vegeta- 
ble matter and formed the sandstone roof over the coal 
deposits. The active energy of the sunlight through un- 
numbered ages was then located in the great coal deposits 
to await the coming of man for its transformation into 
active energy by means of the steam engine and other 
devices. We know that the climate was of a tropical 
nature at this time by the evidence of the plants that then 
grew and whose carbonized forms we now find in the 
coal. 

Even in ice-covered Greenland are found the remains 
of trees similar to the sequoias, or big trees, now known 
only in California. Later on, the earth in the eastern 
part of the country was crumpled into mountains, and the 
coal was pressed and its bituminous matter burned out, 
till the hard anthracite coal of the Pennsylvania hills was 
made; while westward, undisturbed by the upheaval, it 
remained bituminous. The Rocky Mountains of the 
West were a later upheaval than the Blue Ridge, and in 
the rocks thousands of feet above the sea level are found 
the perfectly fossilized remains of fish similar to our her- 
ring, showing how great was the upheaval. 

With the elevation of the mountains the work of the 
water at once began. The rains descended and the 



10 Practical Farming 

floods came, and nature began washing dovm the moun- 
tains to form the soil of the lower levels. On this soil 
and in a purer atmosphere, other forms of vegetation 
appeared, and by their decay added to the mineral soil. 

Later on there came a great accumulation 
Gl "ers ^^ ^^^ ^^^ snow at the North Pole, which 

gradually extended southward and by its 
weight so shifted the earth that a great change came in the 
climate. Plants of warm climates retreated southward. 
Fossil palm leaves of immense size have been dug up on 
the elevated Laramie plains, and give evidence of the 
climate that once prevailed there. As the great ice pack 
moved south, carrying with it the rocks and vegetation 
and grinding the rocks over which it passed, it finally 
made great deposits as its lower edge reached a warmer 
chmate, and left through its whole course the evidence of 
its passage in the grooves plowed in the solid rocks. The 
glaciers not only deposited their burden of rocks and soil 
at their termination, which can now be traced by the range 
of hills thus formed across the country from southern 
Pennsylvania westward, but deposited dams in the valleys 
which caused the formation of lakes in all the sections of 
the country exposed to the glacial action. Of all the 
agencies in reducing the mineral elements of the rocks to 
soil, the glaciers were probably the greatest. But, like all 
other ages in the growth of the earth, the glacial period 
came to an end, and the melting ice carried the ground-up 
soil southward and covered the rocks with the clays of 
to-day. In the sand and clays in the track of the glaciers 
the rock bowlders were dropped after being pounded and 
shaped by their journey. Thus are found in the clays of 



The Soil 11 

the northern part of the continent transported rocks 
totally different from the fast rocks of the neighborhood. 
With the deposit of the earthy matter which the glaciers 
had prepared and the restoring warmth of the climate, 
vegetation again started northward, and through its 
growth and decay contributed to the formation of what 
we to-day know as soil, in distinction from the original 
clay we call subsoil. But the action of the elements still 
continued to disintegrate the rocks and to transport the 
particles to lower levels. The limestone was formed 
from the lime washed into the lakes and from the remains 
of shellfish and vegetable decay, until by degrees the lake 
was filled and the deep soil of the limestone valleys was 
deposited. This soil, not being formed from the disin- 
tegration of the rock below, is often more deficient in lime 
than soils that are formed from the decay of the rocks on 
which they rest; hence it is often found that soils nomi- 
nally limestone need applications of lime in cultivation 
more than some soils on a very different rock formation. 
Through all the long ages the work of the 
Land water has gone on. The rivers, which were 

, ^. * immense floods following the glacial age, 

and Rains gradually shrunk in volume as they drained 
away the great accumulation of water. The 
result is seen to-day in all the river valleys where the 
different heights of the water are shovm by the terraces 
back from the present river bottom lands commonly 
known as second and third bottoms. But the soil is still 
being continually washed from the mountains and hills, 
and the formation of bottom soils along the river is con- 
tinually going on with every overflow. Great rivers, like 



12 Practical Farming 

the Mississippi, carry clear to the sea vast amounts of soil 
and gradually build up deltas, which are tiaally elevated 
into cultivable lands. The Mississippi in times of flood 
has cut new channels, leaving the old bends as lakes back 
from the main current. The first effect of a change of 
location of the land along the river is the formation of a 
sand bar. On this vegetation grows, and finally a forest 
of cottonwoods, and above the sand a deep layer of vege- 
table soil is formed, often to be again undermined by a 
freak of the current in flood time. In all low bottom 
lands we commonly find that the water first drops the 
sand; as the current abates the brick clay in its finely 
comminuted state is deposited, and on this again the vege- 
table remains for the cultivated soil. In warm climates 
the formation of soil where lakes existed goes on rapidly 
through the accumulation of vegetation. This gradually 
fills the lake with its decay and deposits its component 
parts, till finally the lake is soil of great fertility, and the 
vegetation may have made great mineral deposits from 
the iron it contains. We find these immense deposits of 
iron now being utihzcd in the ancient lake beds of Minne- 
sota, while in the warmer climate of California soils of 
immense fertihty are thus made. 

Study the face of a rocky cliff and note 
The Action what a great accumulation of broken and 
P J^?^ pulverized rock forms the sloping talus at 

Formation its base. All of this came from the action 
of water and frost on the surface of the cliff, 
which is constantly forcing off particles, and now and then 
a big portion of rock. Then a river at the base of this cliff 
rises and the finer particles are washed along with the cur- 



The Soil 13 

rent to be deposited elsewhere in the level bottom lands. 
In every rock quarry a large part of this decomposed rock 
must be removed to get at the solid rock below, and thus 
more and more accumulation is made. After every hard 
winter's frost a fresh accumulation can be found at the 
base of the cliffs, and the summer rains wash a fresh sur- 
face for the winter to act upon. Thus the rivers eat into 
the cliffs as the frost on the rock aids them. The result 
is mineral soils for the lower country or deltas at the 
mouth of the river. Even the summer rains have some 
disintegrating power on the rocks, for the rain carries 
with it the great decomposing agent of nature, carbon 
dioxide. It has formed the calcium carbonate of the low 
levels, the so-called limestone which was carried there by 
water. Then when the rain falls on a vegetable soil the 
water is impregnated with vegetable acids, which act read- 
ily on Hmestone rocks and iron formations. In the great 
swamps that line our Atlantic coast we find this process 
of soil-making going on. The vegetable acids dissolve the 
iron that plants have taken up, and bog iron ore is thus 
deposited. This was utilized before the great accumula- 
tions of iron ore were brought into use by the railroads. 
Another force has acted on the land in 

The Influence ^j^^ formation of soil. This is the great sea 

of the Sea on . , 

the Land itself. In far distant ages the sea water 

was more dense with the carbonate of lime 
than now, and there were immense accumulations of 
shellfish which used this lime in the construction of their 
shells. These grew one generation upon the other, gradu- 
ally burying the shells below till a deep deposit of lime- 
stone was formed from their remains. 



II Practical Farming 

Then occurred an elevation of that part of the sea 
bottom where they had been formed. The great white 
chalk cliffs of England, for example, and the white num- 
mulite limestone of the lower Mississippi valley, arose 
from under the sea. Such processes still continue. In 
the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean myriads of minute 
animals exist which form a shell of lime carbonate, and 
their emj)ty shells are forever falling in showers to the sea 
bottom. The whole of the telegraphic plateau, as it is 
called, between Newfoundland and Ireland, has a bottom 
comjwscd of a deep ooze known to scientists as the Glober- 
gerina ooze, composed of the shells of these minute ani- 
mals, the flint spdcules of sponges and the skeletons of 
microsco])ic diatoms. Dredge uj) some of this mud from 
the ocean bottom and dry it and you can write with it on 
a blackboard just as with common chalk. 

All the while the forces of the great sea waves are at 
work in the formation of soil. They eat into the hard 
cliffs and dash up at another place the iinc particles of 
sand. At low tide the sand dries and the winds blow it 
into the great sand dunes that line the coasts covering the 
marshy land behind them. A forest grows there and 
after a wiiile other sand dunes arc formed, drift inward 
and bury the forest. Thus a greater elevation of land is 
made while the sea gradually eats landward and at im- 
l)ortant ])oints a sea wall becomes necessary to protect 
human interests. No sooner have the forces of nature 
elevated a portion of land above the sea than the waves 
l)ut in their work of breaking it down. 

Hut the sea is the great agent of another work in the for- 
nialion of soil. In the more shallow waters along the coast, 



The Soil 15 

especially in the warmer temperate and tropical regions, 
the untold millions of coral polyps live and construct 
great reefs, which are gradually brought to the surface 
and exposed to the action of the waves. The httle build- 
ers die, but the waves carry the particles of their building 
landward, and the lagoon behind the reef gradually fills 
up. The Mangrove trees send their great roots into the 
water along the lagoon, the shellfish accumulate there, 
and the decay of the luxuriant vegetation of the tropics 
soon makes a swamp of a lagoon. But further out again 
the coral polyps build a reef, and again the process is 
repeated. In this way, by the constant increase of the 
coral reefs and the growth of the swamps, a large part of 
the Florida peninsula has been formed. 

As the soils increased on the surface of 
^°^ _ the earth the vegetation increased, till it had 

Vcffctfl-tion 

Prenared the ^^^^^ ^^^ greater part of the carbonic acid 

Soil from the air and left the carbonaceous 

remains to form what we call soil to-day, 
and in which we grow crops. The accumulation of 
vegetable mold is another agency for soil-building and 
improvement. The roots of trees themselves exert a 
solvent action on the rocks, and at times in their growth 
force them apart through the swelHng of their roots in the 
rock fissures. Then other Hving forms invisible to the 
naked eye find a home in the vegetable soil, and through 
their incalculable millions, these so-called bacteria exert 
a great influence in changing the character and composi- 
tion of the soil. 

Unlike green plants above ground, which throw off 
oxygen, these bacteria evolve carbonic and other acids 



16 Practical Farming 

How Bacteria which are agents of corrosion, dissolving the 
Work in the g^jj g^ ^^isLt it is carried by the rivers in 
solution and deposited elsewhere. The work 
of these invisible plants is of the greatest importance 
to the tiller of the soil; for it is through their agency 
that the materials used by other plants are again reduced 
to their component parts, so that they can once more be 
used by crops. Thus goes on the constant round of nature, 
using over and over again the same elements. 

The same water that has flowed to the 

• ^^f \ *°" sea is returned by the clouds in rain, and 
in Nature •' ' 

thus keeps up vegetation on the earth and 
through it the animal life as well. The radiant energy of 
sunshine acting on the green leaves of plants enables 
them to get and store away in their tissues the carbon from 
carbon dioxide. Year after year the tree grows, storing 
carbon away and locating the energy of the sunshine 
where it can again be turned into active energy. We cut 
the tree into firewood and burn it, and get back the 
radiant energy of the sunshine in the heating of our houses 
and the driving of our steam engines. In the same man- 
ner the coal accumulations are simply the stored-up 
energy of the sunshine of long past ages, and we get the 
same radiant energy when we use it for heating or the 
driving of the locomotive. We burn it, and the carbon 
dioxide goes back to the air to furnish food for other plants, 
so that the ceaseless round of nature is kept up. We 
destroy nothing in this world. What we call destruction 
is simply the resolving of matter into original and simple 
states ready to make other combinations and to appear in 
even more useful and beautiful forms. The various cur- 



The Soil 17 

rents in the air keep the materials composing it always 
stirred up so that the composition is always nearly the 
same. But for the winds and the natural upward and 
downward currents of the air there would be an accumu- 
lation of carbon dioxide in the lower levels just as we find 
it deep in wells and mines, causing the choke damp so 
fatal to animal life. 

There are still other lowly soil builders. 
Subsoiling 'ph^. i^tg Charles Darwin, the most careful 
Earthworms ^^^ methodical of students, wrote a book 
on the work of the earthworm. These 
earthworms are found in all parts of the world, and have 
in their various genera an enormous range. They are 
found in the most distant and isolated islands, in far away 
Iceland, in the West Indies, in the Coral Islands of the 
Pacific and in the Falkland Islands of the Antarctic Ocean. 
Their wide distribution, Darwin says, is hard to explain, 
since they are killed by salt water, and could not have 
drifted to these islands. But in every place they inhabit 
they are continually engaged in throwing up Httle mounds 
or castings. No one in the country who has observed 
anything can fail to have observed these castings of the 
earthworms. In humid climates they are found in the 
greatest abundance, and always in the more moist locali- 
ties of drier climates. Every boy who goes fishing knows 
well that he must look for worms in a moist and fertile 
piece of ground. An observer in India says that after the 
water is drawn off from the rice fields the whole soil soon 
becomes covered with the castings of the worms, and on 
the lawns they are continually compelled to roll down the 
castings piled up fully four inches high. Even on the 



18 Practical Farming 

high mountains of India earthworms were found, and in 
Ceylon, Professor King found a worm two feet long and a 
half inch in diameter. As the worm goes deep in the 
earth to hibernate during the winter season in the tem- 
perate zones and in the dry season of the tropics, the 
amount of material they bring to the surface has a great 
influence on the formation and nature of the surface of 
the soil. 

Darwin gives a number of cases where ashes and cinders 
were spread on the surface and after some years were 
deeply covered by the earthy matter brought up by the 
worms from below, till a new soil was formed solely 
by the worms. At an abandoned hmekiln in England 
several large sandstone pieces were left lying on a hard 
rubbish of broken bricks and mortar. Thirty-five years 
later found the stones covered with a deep layer of soil and 
turf. He had one of the stones removed by men with 
crowbars, and found that it still rested on the broken bricks 
and mortar, and showed no signs of having sunk, but the 
soil and turf had accumulated around it, sloping up to 
the top in a crater-like form, and the fine vegetable mold 
around it evidently consisted of the castings of worms, 
some of which were quite recent. Measuring the rate at 
which the stone had actually settled, he estimated that it 
would have taken two hundred and forty-seven years for 
it to settle so as to bring its surface even with the surface 
of the earth. From this and other investigations he be- 
came satisfied that the accumulation of soil through the 
ejections of earthworms had a very important influence 
on the increase of the upper soil. Darwin estimated that 
the number of earthworms in an acre of land was about 



The Soil 19 

53,767, and from their average weight this would mean 
356 pounds of worms in an acre of land. The weight of 
single worm castings was found to be over two ounces as 
an average. This shows well the great amount that can 
be brought from the subsoil to the surface by this appar- 
ently insignificant means. 

Thus we see that numerous agencies have 
Summary of ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ -^^ ^j^^ formation of the soils 
Nature's 

Processes ^^ cultivate. The rain water, with its car- 

bonic acid, disintegrated the rocks; the 
frost helped, and the water transported the fine materials. 
The glaciers ground the rocks through unnumbered ages, 
and their melting carried the muddy flood over all the 
earth. The growth and decay of vegetation added fer- 
tility to it with the materials the trees had gotten from the 
air; for you will remember that over 97 per cent, of their 
structure comes from the air and is thus returned to the 
soil in their decay. Then in some cases the coral polyp 
has extended the land seaward and enabled the vege- 
table soil to accumulate, and the little earthworm has 
industriously burrowed in this soil and deepened the 
surface soil with material brought from below. Lime- 
stone deposits have been heaved up from the bottom 
of the sea. The rivers have transported soil from place 
to place, and shrinking left the river flats or bottoms 
elevated for cultivation. 

Even in our own days we can see how 
Wasted Soil ri^^ti^^"^ restores a wasted soil. Men culti- 
vate a field carelessly in a single crop till 
they say it is worn out. This has been done particularly 
in the Southern cotton and tobacco sections. The field is 



20 Practical Farming 

turned out as worthless. Then at once nature goes to 
work to restore what man has wasted. The broomsedge 
grass covers the old field, and the wind bears the light 
seed of the old field pine, which starts and grows in the 
sheltering grass. The pine sends a long tap root down 
into the subsoil below where the Uttle plow of the devas- 
tator went, and year after year pumps up material for 
growth and takes its great share, too, from the air. Year 
after year it covers the land with its fallen leaves contain- 
ing the matters it got from earth and air, and a forest 
grows up without any help from man. Another man cuts 
the forest down and utilizes the wood, and finds that he 
has a piece of virgin soil instead of a worn-out one. 
This is nature's process of soil-building, and it is the same 
process that has been going on through all time in the 
making of the fertile surface soil in which humus or 
vegetable decay plays so important a part. 

We have seen that great accumulations 
How Lime- that have been made on the surface of the 

s one an earth, while largely of a mineral nature, 

Clays Afifect ' ° •' . ' 

Fertility have been the result of the activity of animal 

life. Chalk is simply one form of what we 

call limestone; and in all limestones, with the exception 

of the older limestones, which have been crystallized by 

heat, we find fossilized animal remains, showing how they 

were made under either the salt or the fresh water. When 

these limestones are elevated by the changes of the 

earth's surface, vegetation starts on them rapidly; and 

its decay increases what we term soil; and on these 

limestone deposits we find much of the best type of 

soils. 



The Soil 21 

The clays of the different parts of the country are 
formed from the decomposition to a great extent of the 
old crystalHne rocks of the granite series. They have been 
spread abroad by the floods of past ages and cover the 
nakedness of the older rocks, and are gradually trans- 
ported by the erosive action of the rains and frost to form 
the foundation for the most productive soil. 

Hence we find that long before there was 
Preparation ^ ^^^ ^^ ^jjj ^.j^g g^jj ^j^^j.^ j^^^ j^ggj^ myriads 
of the Earth , . . , i r i • , , • 

for Man ^^ agencies preparing the earth for his habi- 

tation. The atmosphere had been purified 
of its excess of carbon by its being taken up by the old 
moss trees and buried in the coal formation for his future 
use. Even the growing lack of fertility had been pro- 
vided for by the accumulation of phosphatic rocks in 
various regions, finally to come into use as man wasted 
his inheritance by careless cultivation; for the earth on 
man's advent was a new world growing on the old decay 
and putting out new forms of tree and animal. Time and 
time again has the Almighty fulfilled the words of the 
Psalmist: "Thou takest away their breath, they die, and 
return again to their dust." "Thou sendest forth thy 
breath, they are made, and thou renewest the face of 
the earth." 

Phosphorus from the animal bones of past ages is used 
in the fertilizing of our fields to-day, and thus they are 
taking on a new hfe, and we know not how often this 
has been done in the long ages past, for we have seen that 
all the materials that enter into our soils to-day and grow 
up into crops have always existed and will exist till the 
end of all things, taking on new shapes age after age. 



CHAPTER II 

THE PHYSICAL CHARACTER OF SOILS 

THE earthy covering over the rocks, which we 
call soil, being largely composed of the particles 
of the rocks themselves, varies greatly in its 
texture or physical composition. Since its first deposition 
this soil has been the great laboratory of nature in which 
many and great chemical and j)hysical changes have been 
brought about. And in this great laboratory the work 
has never ceased. It is still in progress, through agencies 
which may be classed as physical, chemical, and biologi- 
cal, as wc shall see. 

There is a wide difference, as the most 

The Soil's casual observer may note, in the size of the 
Capacity for • , i i ., i , • 

Moisture particles that make up our soils, and this 

difference in size involves also a great differ- 
ence in the capacity of different soils for the retention of 
moisture. In soils that are sufficiently well drained for 
agricultural purposes the moisture does not exist as stand- 
ing water; and this is essential since the welfare of all our 
cultivated plants demands free access of air. It is moist 
air rather than water which plant roots need, and this 
moist air is secured by the dehcate films of water that sur- 
round and adhere to each particle of the soil. 

It will be easy, then, to reaUze that the smaller these 
particles, each with its delicate film of water, the greater 



The Physical Character oj Soils 23 

total amount of moisture in the soil. Professor King, in 
his book on the soil, well illustrates this with the example 
of a marble dipped in water. It will be surrounded by a 
film of water. A marble one inch in diameter will hold a 
film of water 3.1416 square inches in area. Reduce the 
marble to spheres one-tenth of an inch in diameter and 
their aggregate areas will be 31.416 square inches. Re- 
duce the particles to one-hundredth of an inch and it will 
take a miUion of them to fill a cubic inch, and they will 
have a total area of 314.16 square inches. With soil par- 
ticles only one-thousandth of an inch in diameter, it will 
take one thousand millions to make a cubic inch; and 
their aggregate surface must measure 3 141. 6 square inches 
— all contained in the inch which, as a whole, had but 
3.1416 square inches of surface. 

This illustrates in the plainest possible manner the way 
in which moisture is held by soils of different physical 
character. Naturally, in a cultivated soil there is a ten- 
dency for the finer particles to settle downward between 
the coarser particles, if they are of the same specific grav- 
ity. Thus we find that in the wide areas that exist in 
some countries hke China, where the soil to a considerable 
depth has been formed by finer particles blown by the 
wind, there is a smaller percentage of extremely fine par- 
ticles than where the soil is sedimentary clay that was 
carried by water. The more sandy nature of this "loess" 
soil, so called, makes it far more easy to cultivate than the 
sedimentary clay which has a far larger percentage of fine 
particles. Where the clay particles approach the fineness 
of the five-thousandth of an inch, they are apt to be 
agglomerated into larger masses and not to hold, each 



24 Practical Farming 

individually, a film of water. Still, the fineness of the 

clay soil makes it far more retentive of moisture than a 

coarse or even a fine sand. The computations of Professor 

King are meant to be comparative and not actual to a 

further extent than he has computed. 

The texture of the soil has a great deal to 

o^-?V^^x° do with the way in which the rain water, 
Soil Texture ... 

laden with the carbonic acid, affects it. A 

piece of rock may lie on the surface for ages and suffer 
very little loss in bulk. But if the same rock is pulverized 
into an impalpable powder and mixed with the soil, its 
decomposition will be comparatively rapid. This is well 
illustrated by the case of the phosphatic rock dredged 
from the rivers of South Carolina, where it has lain for 
countless centuries slowly wearing and being rounded. 
But when put into a mill and reduced to the impalpable 
powder sold on the market under the name of "Floats," 
it becomes a useful plant food which is readily acted 
upon by the rains and the combinations of matter in the 
soil. 

Pelouze, a French chemist, found that a flask in which 
water was kept boiling for five days lost less than two 
grains in weight; but when he broke off the neck of the 
flask, reduced it to a fine powder, and boiled it five days, 
he found that one-third of the weight of the flask had been 
dissolved by the water. If, then, such an insoluble ma- 
terial as glass can be thus dissolved by the action of hot 
water, we can begin to realize what is going on in the soil 
in which the action of the sun's rays has set up heat, and 
in which the fineness of the soil gives the rain water an 
opportunity to act. 



The Physical Character of Soils 25 

Loess, or wind-borne soils, arc made up of very fine 
particles held together by mineral matters, so that in cul- 
tivation they approach the nature of the sandy soils. 
Differences in the physical nature of soils explain the 
difference in the degree to which air and the roots of plants 
penetrate them. In a soil of a mellow texture the roots of 
many plants strike down several feet. The tap root of 
the alfalfa plant in a mellow subsoil will go straight 
down, while on a soil the surface of which is sandy 
but underlain by a very compact clay of great fineness 
of particles we have found the roots of alfalfa striking 
this clay and then running horizontally, so that the 
plants came under the bhghting influence of a summer 
drought. 

But a soil too loose in texture becomes a leachy soil. 
This is the case with deep sands, through which the water, 
laden it may be with plant food, soon gets beyond the 
reach of plants, and constant applications of fertilizers are 
needed to keep uj) its productiveness. The barrenness of 
sand hills is largely due to this leaching away of plant 
food. Hence, in the amelioration of such soils, applica- 
tions of clay and lime have been found useful in binding 
the particles and making them less open and leachy. The 
rotation of crops, and the addition of organic matter in 
decayed vegetations, also improve the leachy sands, for 
on account of their extreme fineness the particles of vege- 
table decay have a greater power to retain moisture than 
matter in any other form. This black humus or organic 
decay is of the first importance in agriculture, not only as 
a carrier of plant food that has contributed to the structure 
of other plants, but as a mellower of a heavy soil, as a 



20 Practical Farming 

compactcr of too light soil, and especially as a retainer of 

moisture for the roots of crops. 

The agencies by which combinations are 

The Chemical formed and broken up are not only chemical 

Composition ,,.,., 

of Soils but biological, as we shall see later; for soil 

fertility depends to a great extent on life in 
the soil. A fertile soil is really a living soil, while a barren 
soil is to a great extent dead. But our present lesson is 
in regard to the chemistry of the soil. 

Chemists have discovered that the soil and air and 
water are composed either of mixtures or chemical com- 
binations of certain elements. An element is matter 
reduced to its ultimate form, something in which we can 
find but the one thing. The great advance in chemical 
science, however, is still finding new elements, and find- 
ing that some substances which have been regarded as ele- 
ments may yet be divided into two or more elements. Some 
of the well-defined elements are known as metals, such as 
iron, potassium, aluminum, calcium, magnesium, sodium, 
and manganese. Others exist in a gaseous form, such 
as oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, etc.; while still others, 
though non-metallic, are found in a mineral state, as 
silicon, carbon, sulphur, chlorine, and phosphorus. The 
air we breathe is made up of a mixture of oxygen and 
nitrogen, both free and not combined with each other, 
the nitrogen being in the air as a diluent to enable us to 
breathe the oxygen. For in free oxygen alone we should 
soon burn up. Oxygen exists in the soil as a free gas 
necessary to the roots of plants. It is also found in com- 
bination with nearly all other elements and is the active 
constituent of the mineral acids. 



The Physical Character of Soils 27 

Combinations The most abundant element in nature is 

of Silicon, probably silicon. The quartz rocks so plen- 
Carbon, -r „ ,- •, i , , 

Oxygen and tifully distributed over the earth are corn- 
Hydrogen posed of silicon and oxygen, making what 
is called silica, and the breaking down of 
these rocks makes the sharp quartz sand used in plas- 
ter for building. Silica, either in the form of sand more 
or less fine, or in the forms of pebbles and broken frag- 
ments of rock, makes the greater part of the bulk of all 
the soils, and without a liberal amount the cultivation 
of soil would be almost impracticable. 

Carbon gets into the soil through the decay of vegeta- 
tion. Vegetation gets it from the air, through the green 
leaves that possess power to gather carbon from the at- 
mosphere, where it is always present in combination with 
oxygen. When it combines with oxygen and forms car- 
bon dioxide, or as it is commonly called, carbonic acid, it 
becomes one of the great decomposing agencies in the soil, 
and also combines with lime to form the carbonate of lime 
known as limestone, or with other elements, making other 
carbonates. 

In the soil this carbonic acid plays a very important 
part as a decomposer of combinations that are insoluble 
in plain water, and so brings into use for plants potash 
and other plant foods that exist in the soil. While carbon 
in its various combinations is plentiful in all fertile soils 
where humus or vegetable decay abounds, no experiments 
have proved that plants ever take carbon through their 
roots from the soil. In building up their structure, in 
which carbon plays a very important part, they get their 
supply rather, as we shall explain further on, through 



28 Practical Farming 

their green leaves from the carbon dioxide in the air. 
Hydrogen, when combined with oxygen, makes water, 
which is of such vital importance to plant and animal life 
alike. The water that plants take up from the soil by 
means of their root system furnishes them with the greater 
part of the oxygen they need and with all the hydrogen; 
and from combination of it with the carbon taken in by 
the leaves the plant makes starch, sugar, and woody 
material for its structure and for storage as future food. 

Sulphur occurs in the soil in the form of 
Occurrence sulphates of iron, lime, and magnesium. 

o up ur, rpj^^ sulphates and oxide of iron color our 
Chlorme, and ^ 

Phosphorus clays and play an important part in the man- 
ufacture of the leaf-green of chlorophyll in 
plants. Iron is the most plentiful of all metals and one of 
the most essential plant foods, for without iron there would 
be no green leaves and hence no getting of carbon from 
the air, and therefore no plant growth. It exists in inex- 
haustible amount in all cultivable soils, and while of vital 
importance there is no danger that it will ever become 
deficient, for the decay of the forest leaves and vegetable 
matter in general rapidly restores it to the soil. 

The element chlorine is found in its most common 
combination in the chloride of sodium, or common salt. 
It is also found naturally combined with potash, and thus 
furnishes one of the readiest means for restoring potash 
to soils that are deficient in this material. While salt is 
found in all soil waters and in all plants it is still an unset- 
tled question as to whether or not it is an essential part 
of plant food. Potash, with which chlorine is often com- 
bined, is essential to plant life; but there is no evidence 



The Physical Character of Soils 29 

that sodium, the base of common salt, is of value to our 
cultivated crops, though some once imagined that the soda 
could replace the potash when it is lacking. Most experi- 
ments, in fact, go to show that in the absence of potash 
soda cannot take its place, and that plants will perish for 
lack of potash even though soda is abundant. 

The element phosphorus is never found free in nature, 
since it bums on exposure to oxygen, and in its most 
famihar form, the heads of matches, it is used as a means 
of producing flame. It is found in all fertile soils, and is 
essential to the life of plants, for without some soluble 
combination of phosphorus in the soil, no plant can 
grow. It is removed from the soil by crops, and grazing 
animals take it rapidly in the formation of their bony 
structure. Hence, in all of our older cultivated soils it 
is apt to be more deficient than any other form of plant 
food. It is a component part of all the old rocks, and their 
decay and disintegrations have furnished it to the soil. 
In some sections it is found in immense deposits made up 
of the fossil remains of the extinct animals of former 
ages, and these deposits now form the chief source from 
which we replenish the waste of phosphorus in our culti- 
vated soils. 

The fossil phosphatic rock is pulverized and used to 
some extent in that form as a fertilizer, which slowly 
becomes available to plants through the action of the car- 
bonic acid in the soil water, or is dissolved in sulphuric 
acid so that a large part of its phosphorus is made availa- 
ble for mixture with soil water. The ancient animals 
made their bony system from the lime and phosphorus of 
the old vegetation, and have left the combination in the 



30 Practical Farming 

soil lo be used over again in furnishing plants with food. 
In addition to the fossil phosphorus in the rocks we get 
phosphorus from the bones of dead animals of the present 
day, which thus quickly return it to the soil to grow more 
plants and to feed more animals; for, as we have seen, 
without phosphorus no plant can grow, and without plants 
no animals could live on the earth. Thus the mineral 
kingdom supplies food to the vegetable and the vege- 
table to the animal, and the succession of hfe is main- 
tained. 

While analysis shows that there is an immense deposit 
of the various essential plant foods in the soil, it has also 
l)cen proved in practice that continual cropping depletes 
some of these faster than others, and that one of the most 
rapidly used-up elements is phosphorus. While, as we 
shall see hereafter, we can get nitrogen in abundance with- 
out applying any to the land, our older cultivated soils 
may need application of phosphorus and potassium in the 
forms of phosphoric acid and potash for the perfection of 
crops, even when a chemical analysis would show these 
abundant in the soil. For often they become available 
too slowly for the demands of modem farming. It has 
been found, too, that the plants that help us get nitrogen 
from the air can do this far more effectively when well 
supplied with phosphorus and potassium. Lime added 
to the soil plays, as we have seen, an important part in 
the nitrification of organic matter, and it also assists in 
bringing into use the insoluble potash in the soil. If 
carelessly used it may aid in the robbing of the soil. But 
the use and abuse of lime will be treated in a subsequent 
lesson. 



The Physical Character of Soils 31 

Importance The larger part of the atmosphere is made 

of Nitrogen, q£ nitrogen, which, as we have shown, 

Aluminum, . 

and Potassium ^^ there to dilute the oxygen so that we can 

breathe it safely. Nitrogen rapidly leaves 
the soil by the growth of plants and by leaching away 
in the soil water, and is also driven back to the air 
by the combustion of organic matter. In the soil it 
is most abundant in the vegetable decay of humus that 
makes soils dark in color. The decay of animal tissues 
also contributes to this humus and consequently to the 
store of nitrogen. Nitrogen exists, further, in the soil in 
combination with Ume, potash, and other bases formed 
through the action of microscopic plant life on organic 
matter. By this action ammonia, the hydride of nitro- 
gen, is released, which is still further reduced by these 
various bacterial forms to nitric acid. The nitric acid 
seeks a base in the soil and forms the nitrates of lime, 
soda, or potash. Plants with green leaves use nitrogen 
only when it has become a nitrate, and hence the action 
of bacteria in reducing the organic matter and carrying 
its nitrogen to a nitrate is an important work in nature's 
process and goes far toward separating a living soil which 
abounds in microscopic life from a dead soil in which 
these minute forms are starved out by the lack of organic 
matter. 

The metal aluminum is one of the most abundant 
elements. It is of late becoming more familiar to all in 
its metallic form, since modern chemistry has devised 
ways for separating it from its combinations in clay. It 
is the very foundation of all true clays, which are formed 
by the decomposition of granite or feldspar; and while 



32 Practical Farming 

itself it docs not feed plants it is important as clay in 
increasing the ability of soils to retain moisture and plant 
food. Clay is essential to bind together the particles of 
silica and to make clayey loams, which are more retentive 
than pure sands. 

The metal potassium is one of the most important of 
all the elements that contribute to the growth of plants in 
the soil. The first material that we can discover that is 
formed within the tissues of a plant is starch, and from 
this starch all the long series of substances known as 
carbohydrates are made, and the woody structure of 
plants is built up of these by the living matter in the 
plant cells. But without potassium in a soluble form no 
plant can make starch, and hence can make no growth. 
Not that there is any potassium in starch, but it has been 
well proved that in its absence no starch can be formed. 
Plants could not use potassium in a metallic form, and it 
is found in combination with oxygen, making potash. 
The granitic rocks contain the silicate of potassium in 
their feldspar and the clays formed from the decomposi- 
tion of these rocks are rich in potassium, which becomes 
slowly available to plants as potash through the action of 
the carbonic acid in the soil waters. It has been found, 
too, that the carbonate of lime acts on this insoluble potash 
and sets it free for plants, and lime sulphate also has a 
similar effect. In New Jersey and other sections of the 
Atlantic coast there are beds of greensand marls which 
contain a mineral known as glauconite. This has a very 
considerable percentage of potash, which becomes slowly 
available when applied to the soil. Kaolin, the white 
clayey material from which chinaware is made, also con- 



The Physical Character of Soils 33 

tains potash. When we burn wood in the fire, especially 

the harder woods, such as oak and hickory, we find that 

these plants had a large supply of potash, which is left 

in the ashes. Wood ashes, therefore, are useful as 

applications to the soil for restoring potash, hme, and 

phosphorus in a form very readily available for the use 

of plants. 

We have in a former lesson mentioned the great 

abundance of limestones, and have said something of 

their formation in past ages. Carbonic 

Lime, Sodium, acid, united with the metal calcium, formed 

e c, as these limestones, in many of which there is 

Productive . -^ 

Factors ^Iso found a varying percentage of another 

metallic element, magnesium. Both calcium 
and magnesium are essential as plant food, and are found 
abundantly in all the seeds of our cereal grains and of 
other plants. The carbonates of these elements are 
found so plentifully in nature that they are practically 
inexhaustible so far as mere plant food is concerned. 
But hme, or the carbonate of calcium, in the form of 
calcined Hmestone or common quickHme, plays a very 
important part in the development of the productive 
capacity of our soils when used in an intelligent way. 
Of its use and action we will have a lesson further on. 

The metal sodium is important as the base of our com- 
mon salt; but, as we have said, though closely resembling 
potash it cannot be used as a substitute for that material 
in a fertihzer mixture. When combined with nitric acid, 
however, forming the nitrate of soda, it becomes one of 
the most readily available and important carriers of 
nitrogen. 



34 Practical Farming 

Experience There has long been a notion, and it is 

More Reliable g^^^j prevalent amonff those who have not 
than Analysis . ^ _ . " . . . . ^ 

given close study to these things, that a 

chemical analysis of our soils will at once show us 
what they need in order to become more productive. 
But while the chemist can find out the composition 
of the soil, he cannot determine the availability of the 
materials of which it is composed, and a soil may 
show a full composition of all the essential elements of 
plant food and still be a barren soil so far as plant Ufe is 
concerned, because the existing plant food is not in availa- 
ble form. It seems that often the physical nature of the 
soil and its mechanical texture has more to do with its 
productiveness than the actual amount of plant food it 
contains. 

A study of the soil through the experimental growing 
of various plants in plots, with the addition of the different 
plant foods separately and in various combinations, will 
help the farmer to understand the needs of his soil better 
than any number of chemical analyses. Chemical analy- 
sis shows that there is a very great difference in soils within 
very limited areas, and it has also been shown that the 
roots of plants have a selective capacity, and that some 
take far more of certain elements than others do. Hence 
the study of the soil must be continued for several years, 
and with varying plants, in order to arrive at an intelligent 
understanding of its needs. Of this we will treat more 
fully when we come to the study of fertiHzers. 

The common classification of soils as clayey, clay 
loam, sandy loam, sandy, or peaty, really tells us little 
in regard to the actual composition of soil, since soils of 



The Physical Character of Soils 35 

Classification similar appearance and texture vary greatly 
of Soils -j^ ih.e\T chemical composition and produc- 

tivity. All through the upland country east of the 
Blue Ridge Mountains there is found a clay loam of a 
reddish color, which the soil survey made by the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture has called Cecil clay, from the fact 
that it was first noticed in the northern part of Cecil 
County, Maryland. But it is well known that this Cecil 
clay is of greatly varying character within limited areas, 
being far more mellow and tractable in some places than in 
others, and it varies also in fertility and productiveness. 
Therefore a superficial soil survey, depending on the 
similarity of appearance, is a poor guide to the character 
of the soil. The productivity of a soil depends very 
largely on the ease with which the plant food it contains 
is dissolved in the soil water, and also on the coarseness or 
fineness of the particles of which it is made up. A clay 
soil containing a much larger actual amount of plant food 
may still be less productive than a soil with much smaller 
store of food, but which from its mechanical nature al- 
lows the store to be more easily used by the roots of 
plants. 

In the physical character of soils, the terms light and 
heavy have reference to the ease or difficulty of culture 
rather than to the actual weight; for, bulk for bulk, a 
"light" sandy soil is really heavier than a "heavy" clay 
soil. A soil will be termed sandy when 35 to 50 per cent, 
of its material is made up of coarse grit. In a clay soil 
the extremely fine particles are in the greatest proportion, 
even making 95 per cent, in the heaviest clay. Between 
the sandy soils and the clay are numerous gradations, dis- 



36 Practical Farming 

tinguishcd as sandy loams and clayey loams according as 
the soil particles differ in size and the soil is more or less 
easy of cultivation. Soils derived mainly from the decay 
of organic matter form a class by themselves, and are 
termed peaty, swampy, or humus soils. These soils when 
well drained are generally found to be abundantly sup- 
plied with nitrogen, but are apt to be deficient in the min- 
eral matters, phosphorus and potassium, and produce a 
rank growth without a corresponding maturity of the 
grain or fruit. 

One of the most important contents of arable soil is 

what we call humus, the decay of organic matter which 

makes the surface of the soil darker in 

Humus, its color, more mellow in character, and above 
Sources and ,, ... _.., ., 

Services '"^^^^ more retentive of moisture. While gen- 

erally esteemed of the greatest importance, 
humus is still, in its chemical composition, not so well 
understood as the mineral soils. Its value does not seem 
to lie so much in its furnishing plant food, though of course 
it does this, as in its physiological and mechanical effect. 
The soils of arid regions, which are generally deficient in 
humus, are still very productive when only water is ap- 
plied; and a soil of good mechanical composition will 
produce fine crops though destitute of humus, if well sup- 
plied with soluble plant food. 

Humus is formed from matter which once carried life, 
either animal or vegetable, and which the forces of nature 
are reducing to such form that the materials can be again 
used in the building up of plants and the support through 
them of animal life. It is simply the result of the never- 
ceasing round by which nature uses over and over again 



The Physical Character of Soils 37 

her old materials, getting again the carbonic acid, water, 
nitrogen, and the ash elements for the building of new 
forms. In northern sections, where the snowfall is heavy 
and the winters long and cold, the vegetable matter in the 
forest waste is held in place, and its decay being slower 
than in warmer regions there is always in the virgin soils 
of the north a greater accumulation of humus than in a 
southern and warmer region. When we come to the 
tropics, with their uniform heat in the soil and rapid 
oxidation as a consequence, the amount of humus is very 
slight. In the high open woodlands of our own southern 
country the leaves of the deciduous trees blow into the 
hollows and low lands and there help to form the fertile 
bottoms, while the hills retain very little. Hence, for the 
careful farmer in the red clay hills of the South, it is of 
far more importance to increase the humus content of his 
soil than it would be with the deeper humus soils of the 
North. 

Nothing has tended more to the impoverishment and 
unproductiveness of the southern uplands than the con- 
stant cultivation of cotton on them, with only the aid of 
commercial fertilizers, which return no humus to the soil. 
The first steps in their improvement must be the restora- 
tion of the organic decay that has been burnt out of them 
in the long clean culture of cotton. These soils have 
become really dead, because the microscopic hfe that finds 
its food in the humus has been starved out. Since the 
products of the life of the soil-bacteria are of the greatest 
importance to our cultivated plants, it is evident that the 
greatest value of the humus Hes in its being the home and 
food of these microscopic forms. Stable manure, while 



38 Practical Farming 

containing less plant food, bulk for bulk, and in a far less 
available form, than commercial fertilizers, has a value 
which the fertilizers do not possess. It aids in keeping up 
the supply of humus by the decay of the organic matter 
it contains, especially through the presence of straw, etc., 
that has been used in the bedding of animals. The com- 
mercial fertilizer exerts no influence in making the soil 
more retentive of moisture, while the stable manure docs 
this essential work. The nitrogen that is in the organic 
matter of the humus, when it is reduced to nitrates through 
the action of the bacteria which are engaged in what we 
call nitrification, is rapidly washed from the soil in humid 
regions; and hence it has been shown by analysis that the 
small amount of humus in the soils of arid regions has a 
larger percentage of nitrogen than the larger amount of 
humus in humid regions. 

In the soils of arid regions there is, as might be sup- 
posed, a larger percentage of soluble plant food than in 
the soils of humid regions, simply because it has not been 
washed down by heavy rains. The presence of a larger 
percentage of lime in the soils of arid regions also has a 
tendency to flocculate the particles, and to prevent the for- 
mation of plastic clays so common in humid sections. 
Hence, irrigating water applied to soils of an arid region 
brings about a wonderful productiveness by the solution 
of the food waiting for water. 

In the sections devoid of rainfall, like Peru, and parts 
of Chih, the nitrogen has accumulated in the form of 
nitrate of soda, which has become of great commercial 
importance for the supplying of nitrogen to our cultivated 
crops in the most rapidly available form. 



The Physical Character of Soils 39 

Action of It has been well said that the chemistry 

Organic ^f carbon is the chemistry of life, for its 

^prgnts in 

gQjjg presence in the soil is evidence of living 

forms having been there and died there. 
In like manner it has been said that the chemistry of 
the rocks is the chemistry of silicon, of which rocks are 
so largely composed, and which in their decay they 
have furnished in many complex compounds to the 
soils of the earth. In fact bio-chemistry, the study of 
chemical changes made in the soil through the action 
of living forms, is becoming more and more a matter of 
investigation from which great results are being had and 
greater are still to be obtained. 

We know that the breaking down of organic matter 
in the soil is the work of microscopic plant hfe. The 
ammonia thus released in turn becomes the food of other 
micro-organisms, which reduce it to nitrites. Then still 
another form feeds on nitrites and makes nitric acid, which 
at once unites with some base in the soil, such as lime or 
potash, and in this form, a nitrate, the nitrogen becomes 
food for the green-leaved plants. We know, too, that while 
the green-leaved plants are dependent for their carbon on 
the carbon dioxide in the air, these microscopic forms, 
which make no green and cannot thus get carbon from 
the air, have the power that green-leaved plants do not 
possess of getting carbon from the carbonate of lime in 
the soil, and that thus the presence of lime carbonate in 
the soil aids in the process of nitrification or the change of 
organic nitrogen into the readily available nitrates. But 
the soil still offers innumerable problems to the chemist, 
and many a question is yet to be worked out there in the 



40 Practical Farming 

solution of which the small laboratory of the chemist hardly 
suffices. For nature often contradicts the results that are 
attained in restricted conditions and in artificial ways. 

We have now learned that a certain amount of nitrogen, 
potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, calcium, and 
perhaps some minor constituents is essential to plant life, 
and that these must be in such combination as will render 
them easily appropriated by the roots of plants. If any 
one of these elements is entirely lacking in the soil no plant 
can grow in it. This much has been abundantly proved. 
Sulphur, which is also an essential in plant life, is gotten 
from the combinations of the other elements with sul- 
phuric acid, forming the sulphates of lime, ammonia, 
or potash. Some of these things that are deemed essen- 
tial are really needed by plants in very small amounts as 
plant food. Silica is taken into the plant simply because 
the plant cannot help taking it when dissolved in the soil 
water, and a large portion of the Hme found in the plant 
tissues is there for the same reason, though part is utihzed 
by the plant to render harmless some products that would 
be harmful to plant life, like oxalic acid. The lime unites 
with this and forms crystals of oxalate of lime that are 
insoluble in the cell sap, and thus the acid is rendered 
harmless. A soil without iron could form no green mat- 
ter for the leaves of plants, and without this green matter 
the plants cannot decompose the carbon dioxide in the 
air and get their carbon, and hence no growth. But iron 
is found everywhere in some form, and is so plentiful in 
nature that no soil is deficient in it. Every green leaf 
takes up iron and in its decay returns it to the soil, so that 
it is being used over and over again. 



CHAPTER III 

THE RELATION OF SOILS TO MOISTURE AND AIR 

THE roots of plants, if we except the aquatic plants 
of the swamps and marshes, do not need water 
in the soil, for standing water in the soil shuts 
out the air which is essential to the oxidation of plant food, 
and keeps the soil cold. What we need in the soil is 
moist air. We have seen in our first lesson that the per- 
centage of moisture in the soil will depend largely on the 
size of the soil particles, each surrounded by its film of 
water. A soil that parts with this moisture rapidly by 
evaporation into the atmosphere will always be a colder 
soil than one which holds the moisture and evaporates it 
more slowly. So standing water is harmful, though 
moisture is necessary. It is essential that the soil be 
penetrated by air that the oxidation of matter in the soil 
may take place, and it is necessary that there be a due 
amount of moisture so that plant food may be dissolved 
for the roots since, as we shall see, no plant food is taken 
up until completely dissolved in the soil moisture. 

The rise of water in the soil to supply 
Supply of that taken by plant roots and by the evapo- 

ois ure y j-^tion into the air is caused by what is 
Capillary ^ ^ •' 

Attraction known as capillary attraction. Place a 

thick towel with one end in a pail of water 

and the other end resting on the ground and you will see 

that the water is taken up from the pail and transferred 

41 



42 Practical Farming 

over the rim to the ground through the capillarity set up 
in the fine meshes of the towel. The same capillarity 
occurs in the soil when left at rest, and in this rising water 
there is also brought to the surface soil much plant food 
that otherwise would be out of reach of the roots of crops. 
It has been shown that when a glass tube of very small 
diameter is inserted in water the water will rise in the tube 
above the surface of the surrounding liquid, and also that 
the smaller the diameter of the tube is the higher the 
water will rise within it. In like manner very small tubes 
form in the soil by which water rises in the same manner, 
and the extreme fineness of these naturally formed tubes 
greatly increases the power to draw up the water, though 
in a far more irregular shape than the straight tube of 
glass. Professor King says that he "found that a very 
fine sand did lift water through four feet at the rate of 
.91 pounds per square foot in twenty-four hours, while a 
clay loam lifted it at the rate of .9 pounds per square 
foot through the same distance in the same time." By 
this means water from below is continually being brought 
within the reach of the plant roots. 

Since all plant food must be in a state of solution in the 
soil before plants can use it, the importance of a supply of 
water along with an abundant supply of the oxygen of the 
air in the soil, will be at once apparent. The films of 
water surrounding every soil particle exert a wonderful 
influence in the solution of food for the plant roots. Even 
materials which the chemist finds insoluble in water in 
the laboratory are slowly attacked by the soil water with 
its carbonic acid and brought into shape for plants to use. 
Finely pulverized phosphatic rock when placed in the soil 



Relation of Soils to Moisture and Air 43 

and left to the action of these films of water gradually 
releases its phosphorus to the roots, though the chemist 
finds that it is soluble only in strong acids. But Nature's 
laboratory, though working slowly, works all the time 
and often puts at naught the results of the laboratory of 
the chemist. Few who have not studied the matter sci- 
entifically realize the large amounts of water used in the 
production of our cultivated crops. For every ton of dry 
matter in a crop of Indian corn the plants used 309.8 tons 
of water, and similar amounts are used by other crops. 
A clover crop uses a great deal larger amount than corn. 
This water is not only taken as a means for the carrying 
of plant food, but is itself necessary for the life activities 
of the plant ; for no matter how much food may be present 
and within the plant its activities must cease if there is 
not a sufficiency of water present for the Hving matter to 
continue its work. 

Soils vary greatly in their capacity for the 

Retentive retention of moisture. Since the water in 

apaci y o ^j^^ ^^^^ -^ j^^^^ -^^ films surroundinsr each 

Various , _ *=• 

Soils grain, it is evident that a coarse-grained soil 

will hold less moisture than one made up of 
very fine grains. Then, too, the capacity of the soil for 
drawing water from below will vary with the fineness of 
its particles, for we have seen that the finer the capillary 
tubes in the soil the higher the water will rise from below. 
This capillarity will also depend on the depth at which 
the permanent water-table in soil is from the surface. 
Also, in a finely divided soil the water that falls in rain 
percolates more slowly downward and moisture is re- 
tained longer after a rain than in a coarsely granulated 



44 Practical Farming 

soil. This can be readily seen in a deep, sandy soil after 
a rain. The rain water disappears very quickly, while 
on a more loamy soil the surface will remain wet for a 
much longer time and on a compact clay the water may 
stand for a time on the surface if special means have not 
been provided for sinking it in the soil by underdrainage. 
Even in a sandy soil the rate of percolation downward 
depends largely on the fineness of the sand. There are 
soils in some sections which are known as pipe-clay soils, 
which drain very slowly and become very hard in dry 
weather, when the soil is really not properly a clay but 
sand of great fineness and has just enough of clay to bind 
these very fine particles closely together. They are really 
quicksand soils and are among the most intractable of 
soils for cultivation since they hold water till evaporation 
takes place from the surface, making the soil cold and 
unfavorable to vegetation. When soils of this nature 
are well stocked with humus or organic decay they are 
made more porous, and the downward percolation is more 
rapid. Yet the retention of soil moisture is increased, 
though it may seem paradoxical, for the hardening of such 
soils in dry weather is due to the extreme fineness of the 
particles favoring rapid evaporationr from the surface, 
unless the formation of a crust is stopped by frequent 
shallow cultivation. Free percolation of water through 
the soil is essential to the keeping of the aeration of the 
soil perfect, provided the percolation is not too deep and 
a more retentive stratum is not far below. But the rapid 
percolation in a coarsely granulated sandy soil under 
which there is no retentive subsoil is excessive, and makes 
what is known as leachy soil in which the plant food is 



Relation of Soils to Moisture and Air 45 

rapidly carried downward by the rain water out of the 
reach of plant roots. In such a soil constant applications 
of manure and fertilizers are essential to the production of 
crops and the accumulation in it of organic decay that 
will tend to make it more retentive of moisture. Then, 
too, the depth to which the water percolates and the feeble 
capillarity of a coarse sand makes the rise of water in such 
soils less than where there is a retentive subsoil near at 
hand. These sandy soils, however, yield up to plants 
their water more completely than a clay loam. Professor 
King reports that he found corn able in a sandy soil to 
draw down the water content of the soil to 4.17 per cent., 
while in a clay soil with a much greater water capacity 
the corn crop could draw it down only to 11.79 P^^ cent. 
In all soils there is a point below the sur- 
fvj^ P face where water is constantly present. This 
tajjlg is called the water-table. Where this is too 

near the surface the soil is rendered cold, 
and the chief value in tile underdrainage is in lowering this 
water-table so that the air can penetrate deeper in the soil 
and there will be a greater depth of soil containing only 
the capillary moisture that is needed by the roots of plants. 
Much of the greater productivity of the lowlands or bot- 
tom lands is due to the fact that the permanent water-table 
in the soil is nearer to the surface than on the uplands, and 
hence the capillarity of the soil can bring moisture to the 
roots more readily and constantly. 

The water-table in good arable soils should always be 
four feet or more below the surface, and as a matter of 
fact it is on the uplands generally from ten to fifty feet 
down. What concerns us mainly in agricultural opera- 



46 Practical Farming 

tions is how much moisture can we control and retain in 
the soil for plants during seasons of drought, for the 
actual movement of the water in a saturated soil is of im- 
portance mainly as a question to be determined in the drain- 
age of land. The rapidity or slowness with which water 
evaporates from the soil is what concerns the farmer and is 
largely what determines the productiveness of a certain soil. 
The Bureau of Soils of the United States 

Experiments Department of Agriculture has made some 

in Evaporation . , , . 

of Moisture experiments to show the rate of evaporation 

from the different soils. In making the soil 
surveys in various parts of the country this Bureau gave 
various names to certain types of soil according to the lo- 
cality where each pecuhar type of soil was seen. " Cecil 
clay" has been spoken of. In Hke manner they call the 
heavy clay soil of the Hagerstown valley in Maryland, 
"Hagerstown clay." The "Yazoo clay" is named from 
the soil in the Yazoo river bottoms in Mississippi, These 
three clay soils the Bureau says are the strongest types of 
clay soil used for agricultural purposes in this country. 
After evaporation in tin cans for twenty-five hours the 
Cecil clay retained seven per cent, of the water it con- 
tained at the start, while the Norfolk sand retained but 
one per cent. In another experiment samples of a num- 
ber of soils were exposed to the sun and wind for six 
hours. Sand-hill soil that had lo per cent, of water at 
first, lost 33 per cent, of its content; and Cecil clay, 
which contained at first 17 per cent, of water, lost but 14 
per cent, of the amount it contained. 

The importance of a loose soil cover as a preventive of 
evaporation was shown by an experiment with various 



Relation oj Soils to Moisture and Air 47 

samples. Cecil clay was placed in a tumbler and covered 
with a layer of dry earth an inch thick. Some Ught loam 
from St. Mary's County, Maryland, was treated in the 
same way, and one glass was left to evaporate without any 
cover. The total loss from the Cecil clay was somewhat 
less than half as much as that from St. Mary's loam, show- 
ing the marked difference in the resistance offered by the 
two soils to the passage of watery vapor. The uncovered 
loam lost three times as much as the covered. 

From various experiments it is evident that the per- 
centage of humus in a soil has a marked effect on its 
capacity for retaining moisture. In general, then, we 
may assume that evaporation is less rapid from a clay soil 
than from a loam or sandy soil, and that to retain the 
moisture brought up by capillarity in any soil it is advisable 
to keep a layer of loose and dry soil on the surface and 
to prevent the formation of a crust there which would 
promote the rapid evaporation. In short, by shallow 
cultivation during dry weather we can prevent the loss of 
moisture and hold the capillary moisture where the roots 
of the plants need it. 

There is, however, one point that has been 
Selective determined by experimenting with water in 

Plant Roots ^^^ solution of plant food in the soil. As is 
well-known, the food which is taken up by 
the roots of plants must be in complete solution. But the 
extent to which this solution is due to the water in the soil 
is far less than is usually imagined. At the Minnesota 
experiment station grain grown in pots filled with a very 
fertile soil, grew finely and matured normally. In other 
pots sand entirely free from plant food was also planted 



48 Practical Farming 

with similar grain. This sand was kept moist with water 
that was leached through a fertile soil similar to that in 
the first-named pots, thus getting as much as possible of 
the soluble plant food in the soil. Another pot of the 
sand was watered with distilled water. This last pot pro- 
duced plants to the extent only of the plant food in the 
seed sown and then died. The pots watered with the soil 
leachings grew feebly and finally died, showing that the soil 
leachings alone did not furnish food enough for the plants. 
These experiments seem to confirm the opinion that the 
roots of the plants themselves have a solvent power on 
matter in the soil which is not directly soluble in the soil 
water. It also goes far to explain the fact that matter, 
like pulverized phosphatic rock, which the chemist decides 
is insoluble in water, when placed in the soil, does feed 
the crop. While, therefore, the presence of water is essen- 
tial in the soil, the solution of plant food is not altogether 
dependent on the water, and experiments made to show 
that the water-soluble food in all soils is very similar are 
misleading, since they take no account of the work of the 
plant roots themselves, which not only take part in the 
solution but, as we shall see later, have the power to select 
the foods they particularly need in different percentages 
in different crops. 

„^ ^ Movements of water in the soil are often 

Effects of ^ ,.,.,. . , 

Atmospheric ci^e to the sou air and its expansion and con- 
Pressure on traction. Springs and small streams will 
Moisture often swell up for the same reason that the 

mercury falls in the barometer, that is be- 
cause of lessened air pressure. Changes in the barom- 
eter are very commonly accompanied by changes in the 



Relation of Soils to Moisture and Air 49 

outflow of water from tile drains. When the air pres- 
sure above ground is lessened there is to some extent 
the same diminution in pressure of the air in the soil, and 
the water flows more freely from drain or spring, and rises 
higher in wells. Some years ago late in autumn a corre- 
spondent of a city paper wrote to the editor that he noticed 
that just before a rain storm the water in his spring rose, 
and he wanted to know the reason. The editor, who we 
suppose had been taught the old fable that the sap runs up 
the trees in the spring and runs down in the fall, replied 
that this was easily explained, for it was the sap running 
out of the roots of the trees at that season of the year. 
Inasmuch as nothing of the sort takes place, as we shall 
see later in our study of plants, a little more information 
would have taught the editor that it was simply the release 
of the atmospheric pressure that caused the water to flow 
into the spring, just as it causes the mercury to flow into 
the cup of the barometer. It has been found that in Wis- 
consin during the summer, from July to September, the 
surface of the ground water and the rate of percolation 
into tile drains are subject to daily oscillations in level and 
changes in the rate of flow, owing to the daily expansion 
and contraction of the air contained in the upper two or 
three feet of the soil. "The changes of pressure thus 
developed react on the capillary water in the soil in the 
zone where the cavities are nearly or quite filled, forcing 
the water down and out into drainage channels when the 
air is expanding, but allowing such as has not been per- 
manently lost to return again to its normal level when the 
pressure becomes less with the cooHng and contraction 
of the soil air." This diurnal rise and fall from the differ- 



50 Practical Farming 

cnces in the pressure of the heated and coohng ah: can be 
easily traced in a shallow well. 

We have seen that the capacity of a soil 
Proportion of to retain moisture varies generally in pro- 
j^^^" portion to the percentage of clay it contains. 

Soil Few soils do retain in the upper five feet of 

the soil as much as twenty inches of water, 
while some authorities claim that for the best results in 
the crop the water content should be held up to fifty 
inches or more. While the water-fall of a section may 
annually amount to this much in inches, the percolation 
and evaporation very largely reduce the percentage avail- 
able to the crops. In practical agriculture, then, the con- 
servation of the soil moisture becomes of the greatest 
importance especially where the annual amount is below 
the optimum. Even in regions of heavy rainfalls as in our 
South Atlantic states a large part is carried off by surface 
washing in the torrential rains of summer, another part 
evaporates, and still another passes down into the subsoil 
in the drainage, so that even with fifty inches of annual 
rainfall it is one of the most difficult of problems to retain 
for the use of plants as much as one-third of the rain- 
fall. The importance, then, of using every means possible 
to prevent the loss of water will become apparent to any 
one. The practical means for accompHshing this will be 
more fully treated in another lesson. 

We have seen that water standing too near the sur- 
face is damaging to our cultivated crops since it makes 
the soil cold and shuts out the oxygen of the air which 
is so essential to the welfare of the plant roots. We have 
also noted that the point in the soil where water lies per- 



Relation of Soils to Moisture and Air 51 

Drainage and manently is known as the water-table. 

Mechanical Where this water-table is within a foot or 
Improvement ^ , . , ,. . . 

of Soils ^^° °* ^^^ suriace any addition from rain- 

fall soon floods the land and destroys crops. 
Hence the importance of drainage for lands of this char- 
acter. Open ditches will to some extent lower this water- 
table and carry off the rainfall. But open ditches to be 
effective in the drainage of the land need to be quite close 
together and thus are seriously in the way of cultivation. 
Their banks also become the nurseries of weeds and 
bushes and need constant clearing. They occupy too 
much of the land. Hence the importance of taking the 
water away in underdrains. Underdrains are not pri- 
marily for carrying off the rainfall rapidly but for lowering 
the permanent water-table in the soil, thus making room 
for the air and enabling the soil the more rapidly to take 
up the water that falls in rain. The air, too, warms the 
soil and lightens its mechanical condition. To accomplish 
this the drains must of course be placed in the soil deeper 
than the natural water-table, and the nearer the lines of 
drains are to each other the more effectually they will 
lower the water-table, since each drain will draw water 
only from a certain distance each side of it, and if too far 
apart the intervening water-table will be very little lowered. 
The best material for underdrains is tile 
Materials and baked like bricks. These are made in short 

e o s or lenprths and of various diameters. Many 
Drainmg *=" •' 

Lands shapes of tiles have been made, but practical 

tile drainers have settled down on the round 

tubular tiles as best. Various other materials have been 

used and answer very well for a time where tiles may be 



52 Practical Farming 

too expensive. One of the simplest forms of underdrains 
is to cut a ditch of the proper depth and lay in the bottom 
two pine poles with the bark taken off. These are laid so 
as to leave a space between them and a larger pole is placed 
on top so as to form a channel for the water between the 
first two. The whole are covered with leaves to prevent 
the earth sifting in and the ditch is then filled. These 
pole-drains last well and have in some cases done effective 
work for twenty years. Drains are also made where rocks 
or stones are plentiful by placing them on the sides of the 
ditch and covering with other and larger rocks or stones 
and then with smaller broken parts before filling. These 
drains when well made are of a very lasting character. 
Still other drains are made by nailing four narrow boards 
in the form of a long box and laying these in the ditch. 
These, too, last well in the ground, for when kept con- 
stantly wet the wood, shut from the air, takes a long time 
to decay. But for permanent drains the earthen tiles are 
much to be preferred where the expense can be afforded. 

Still we have had in use well-made stone underdrains 
which as near as could be ascertained were laid one hun- 
dred years ago and are still effective. The drains should 
be cut as deep as the fall in the land will allow, for the 
deeper they are below the surface and the nearer the hnes 
of drains to each other, the more effectively they will lower 
the water-table. 

Special tools are made for digging and shaping the bot- 
tom of the ditch and for laying the tiles. We have found 
that it is always better to cover the tiles at first with fine 
hay or straw to prevent the earth sifting into the joints of 
the pipes. 



Relation of Soils to Moisture and Air 53 

Ground Plans In cutting ditches for underdrains they 

and Grading should run in a direct Hne to a general 
of Ditches , . , ^, i r , 7 

dram or outlet. The grade of the bottom 

of the ditch must be made perfectly uniform, since any 

break in the grade will form sags that retain silt and 

choke the drains. In a piece of low ground bordered by 

high land and with a stream of water running through, 

the drainage is simple, as the ditches should run from the 

base of the hills directly to the stream, inclining somewhat 

in the direction of the stream to prevent any choking of 

the outlet. In this case the ground plan of the drains will 

be Hke the bones of a fish with the stream representing the 

backbone. The ditches should be as narrow as they can 

well be dug so that the tile at the bottom will rest in a sohd 

bed of similar size and shape to the tile used. 

The distance between the line of ditches will vary with 
local conditions. Where the fall is slight and the ditches 
not very deep, they will need to be nearer together; even 
where there is a good fall and the ditches are cut deeply 
they will be better near together, if there are strong spring 
heads near the higher ground. In fact we have found it 
an advantage to run a line of large tile around the base of 
the hill to cut off the springs and then to branch the tiles 
from this line to the outlet. 

The size of the tile used will depend on the amount of 
water to be carried. Where the wetness of the land is 
caused by strong springs that break out and overflow it, 
there will be need of larger tiles to carry off this water than 
where the wetness is simply due to a general nearness of 
the water-table to the surface. Where the drains empty 
into an open ditch or stream the outlet must be protected 



54 Practical Farming 

with a facing of stone or bricks to prevent the washing and 
caving in of the bank. Where a tile drain crosses a springy 
place with many crawfish holes it is better to place a nar- 
row plank in the bottom of the ditch on which to place the 
tile, as the burrowing of the crawfish is apt to throw the tiles 
out of line and choke them. Wherever the fall will allow 
it, the depth to which the water-table is lowered should be 
as nearly four feet as practicable. Where it is impracti- 
cable to have the drains so deep they should be nearer 
together. Never connect a lateral tile drain with a main 
tile at right angles, but always at a more or less acute 
angle in the direction of the current. The same caution 
should be used in terminating at an open outlet, where the 
end should be above the water in the open ditch or stream. 
The higher or lower level of the source of the water to 
be drained determines the width between the drains to 
some extent. As before shown, the water-table in the 
soil will always be a little higher midway between the lines 
of tiles, and when the fines are too far apart the water- 
table midway between the fines will be practically undis- 
turbed. Where the water in the tiles comes from strong 
springs on higher land above, the lower levels will become 
subirrigated from the seepage from the full tiles lower 
down and a permanent moisture maintained there. If 
this is not kept too near the surface it will be of advantage 
to some crops. We once had a piece of land kept moist 
in this way in which crops of melons and cucumbers 
throve all through the summer when on drier land they 
dried up after producing the first crop of fruits. For gar- 
den crops like celery this subirrigated land will prove 
very favorable. 



Relation of Soils to Moisture and Air 55 

The advantages of undcrdrains over open ditches are so 
many that the matter is hardly debatable. Underdrain- 
age, by lowering the standing water in the soil, admits the 
air to a greater depth and hence tends to make the soil 
warmer. It improves the mechanical texture of the soil 
through this admission of air separating the soil particles. 
The roots of plants are able to run deeper into the soil by 
reason of the improved depth of aerated soil and the im- 
proved texture. The soil dries earlier in the spring, and 
hence can be worked at an earlier date, which is of itself 
advantage enough to pay for the work. The presence of 
standing water in the soil prevents the release of nitrogen 
from the organic matter in the soil in the form of nitrates 
for the use of plants, both by shutting out the air and by 
preventing the increase of the bacteria which are engaged 
in the process of the nitrification or change of organic 
nitrogen to nitrates soluble in the soil water. There is also 
an acid condition in wet soils that is unfavorable to the 
growth of plants, and particularly unfavorable to the life 
of the soil bacteria, the microscopic plants which, as we have 
seen, are among the most important of the agencies engaged 
in the production of the higher plants that form our crops. 
The immense arid regions of the far West, 

Irrigation— v^^here the rainfall is too hght for the pro- 
Surface and . . . 
Overhead duction of crops, are made in many sections 

extremely productive through irrigation from 

canals conveying the water at a higher level from the upper 

waters of the streams. The United States Government is 

now engaged in a vast system of storage lakes in this region 

so that great areas of the land now in desert by reason 

of lack of rainfall, will be brought into cultivation. The 



56 Practical Farming 

need for irrigation on these lands is generally admitted. 
But few as yet realize the importance of irrigation in sec- 
tions where the rainfall is abundant, where it is differently 
distributed. Our South Atlantic states have an abundant 
rainfall, which is at times excessive, but at other times 
they suffer from protracted drought. Cultivators, espe- 
cially the market gardeners, are beginning to understand 
that a supply of water available in dry weather often 
makes all the difference between success and failure of 
the crops. Instead of running water on the surface in 
ditches the market gardeners of the South have devised a 
system of overhead irrigation by means of iron pipes 
elevated on posts high enough to work horses under. In 
some cases the water is forced by a steam pump directly 
through a main pipe of large size, from which lines of per- 
forated pipes of smaller size branch forty feet apart from 
each other. By this means a general shower is made over 
the whole plot of land. In one instance we have exam- 
ined eighteen acres are thus watered. In other cases the 
water is pumped to an elevated tank and from there dis- 
tributed by natural flow to the pipes. 

Another value has been found in this method of over- 
head irrigation. This is for the purpose of warding off 
damage from late spring frosts. The shower is kept up 
during a frosty night, and the cold water, being always 
above the frost point, with its latent heat prevents any 
damage from the frost. In hilly districts where there are 
running streams and low lands bordering them, irrigation 
may often be done with economy on a small scale by the 
natural flow of the stream being turned from above to 
take a higher level in a ditch along the base of the uplands 



Relation of Soils to Moisture and Air 57 

from which it can be taken to water the market gardens on 
the flats by running the water slowly between the rows of 
vegetables. With high-priced products like those of the 
garden it is often, even in humid districts, profitable to 
provide some means for watering in dry weather. With 
the introduction of cheap gasoline engines for pump- 
ing water to elevated tanks this can often be accom- 
plished even on lands that cannot be watered from 
streams. 

In some sections, especially in Europe, on high-priced 
lands, the sewage flow from the cities has been utilized in 
the production of great crops of grass. The sewage flows 
over the surface and the surplus water is carried off by a 
system of underdrains. Irrigation for general farm crops 
in our humid sections is still in the future, but will come 
with the increase in population and the value of the farm- 
ing lands. In one large institution of over five hundred 
inmates, in this country, the sewage is disposed of on a 
five-acre lot of grass. The sewage is received in a general 
cesspool from which porous tiles radiate in all directions, 
and below these are lines of drainage tiles to carry off the 
surplus water, which flows almost entirely purified by 
the absorbent power of the soil, into a stream below. 
The field cuts very heavy crops of grass. 

It is probable that the overhead system, imitating a 
rainfall, will be the one most generally used by market 
gardeners. One market gardener's farm in North Caro- 
lina has now eighteen acres irrigated in this way. The 
overhead sprinkling pipes can also be used for the distri- 
bution of fertilizers dissolved in the supply tanks and can 
thus be distributed in the most uniform and readily avail- 



58 Practical Farming 

able manner. The absorbent power of a good loam soil 
is such that even when the plant food is in perfect solution 
the soil will hold on and rob the solution of the plant food 
so that nothing will escape in the drainage water except 
the nitrates. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF PLANTS 

PLANTS of all kinds make their growth by multi- 
plication of minute box-like forms called cells. In 
the lowest forms of plant Ufe the entire plant con- 
sists of a single cell containing the living matter known 
to botanists as protoplasm. This Hving matter, though 
itself a formless substance resembhng the white of an egg, 
does all the work of the plant. From material carried by 
this formless protoplasm it builds the walls of its cell and 
carries on all the functions of hfe. As plants develop in 
complexity we find that the first increase of these cells is 
in long strings, cell added to cell in straight rows. With 
little higher organism, as in mosses, they are formed into 
flat tissues by the union of these rows of cells, making 
some resemblance to the true leaves of the higher plants. 
When we come to the ferns we find a greater complexity, 
certain cells taking on certain work and others making 
quite different forms. Then in our ordinary forest trees 
we find a still greater complexity and division of labor 
between the various cells. 

By examining the cross-section of one of our trees we 
can see with the naked eye a series of rings of growth 
around a common center. Examining these rings with a 
microscope we find that the appearance of rings is pro- 
duced by the decrease in the size of the cells and the thick- 
ening of their walls toward the close of the season, the new 

59 



60 Practical Farming 

growth of the following season starting with large and thin- 
walled cells and gradually growing thicker-walled toward 
the close of the season of growth. 

The ring-like appearance gives us the means for count- 
ing the age of the tree. Growth is added to the tree in 
circles of cells something after the manner of building a 
house by adding brick after brick, only that in the tree 
the brick-maker and the mason hve inside the bricks and 
from their ovm substance construct the walls around them. 
In the first stages of growth, as between the bark and 
the wood, these cells are all in communication with each 
other, so that materials can be transported up or down 
throughout the whole increasing tissue of the cells, and 
their becoming more woody cuts o£f each cell to itself, 
and the living matter in each cell goes on thickening the 
walls around it till its substance is entirely used up, and 
in the completed wood there is no life left. It is now 
heart wood, dead wood, and remains simply as a support 
to the tree, while the Hfe goes on circling around it and 
gradually adding more completed wood to the heart. 
That this heart wood is no longer of use to the tree except 
as a support is well shown by the fact that the heart may 
decay and the tree become hollow and the growth still 
goes on uninterrupted. But cut off the sap wood, and 
the tree at once dies. 

There is, however, another class of plants 

Two ea ing j^ ^^^ stems of which we see none of this 

Classes of 

Plants ring-like growth, but the whole stem is 

filled with a multitude of long fibers growing 

through a softer aggregation of thin-walled cells. We do 

not find this character of growth in trees till we reach the 



The Anatomy and Physiology of Plants 61 

section where palm trees grow, but all of our grasses have 
some such structure. Indian corn, really a grass, is a 
good example. Break off a dry stalk of com and you will 
find a multitude of the thread-like forms growing up 
through the soft fundamental tissue. If we make a thin 
cross-section of a corn stalk and examine it under a micro- 
scope we shall see that these threads are really tubular in 
form and are the means through which each leaf on the 
corn plant gets the water from the soil. Not that the soil 
water comes up in these tube-like structures in the same 
way that water runs through a pipe, for the elongated cells 
are really filled with air and the water rises by permeating 
the walls of the cells. 

These two classes of plants have been denominated, 
the first class exogens or outside growers, and the second 
class endogens or inside growers. While these names are 
not scientifically accurate they serve very well to distin- 
guish the characters of the plants. The differences in 
their structure are correlated with other differences, be- 
ginning from the structure of the flowers, the germination, 
and the general habit of the plants. The better distin- 
guishing terms would be to call the first class, the exogens, 
dicotyledons, because of the fact that in germinating from 
the seed they always have a pair of seed leaves, while the 
other class or endogens, are very properly monocotyle- 
dons, or one-seed-leaf plants. The seed leaves are termed 
cotyledons by botanists, and with the prefix, mono, the 
word means of one, and with di, of two, seed leaves. 
There is still another class with which we have little to 
do in agriculture, which make a circle of seed leaves 
in germinating, and is therefore called poly, or many 



62 Practical Farming 

cotyledons. Our pine trees give us an example of this 

class. But the pines, while differing in their internal 

structure from many other plants of two or more seed 

leaves, are still outside growers like the true dicotyledons. 

Even our common forest trees, which in the greater part 

of this country all belong to the dicotyledons, have certain 

of their cells transformed into the tubular shape for the 

conveyance of water and afterward for the distribution of 

the elaborated material for the growth of the tree. Various 

names are applied to these transformed cells by botanists 

according to the purpose they serve in the Hfe of the plant. 

But it is not our purpose here to deal in botanical terms 

further than is necessary to comprehend the structures 

that carry on the life-work of plants. 

To study the growth of a plant it is best 
The Study of ^^ ^.^ ^.^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ q^^ ^f ^^^ ^^^^ 
the Bean '^ 

subjects to select for study is the common 

garden bean. Take some beans and soak them for a 
night in water. The next morning you will find that 
they have swollen. This is the first step toward germi- 
nation. So long as a seed is kept perfectly dry the living 
matter in it will remain dormant, and in some seeds it 
can be kept dormant, but still Hving, for many years, while 
others lose their vitality in a short time, and some will not 
even admit of complete drying. But to return to the 
swollen bean. You will find that it has a protective coat 
around the whole — a sort of skin. On one side you will 
find the eye or scar where it was attached to the interior 
lining of the pod. On one side of this eye you will find a 
raised lump and on the other side a minute opening 
through the outer skin. Now place a knife blade carefully 



The Anatomy and Physiology of Plants 63 

on the other side of the bean and split it into halves as 
it naturally divides. Down near the eye you can easily 
see a pair of miniature leaves and a short pointed stem, the 
point being directed straight toward the little opening 
we noticed on the outside. The bean, having imbibed 
moisture, is ready to begin active life, for a plentiful supply 
of moisture is essential to the activity of the living matter 
in the seed, which performs all the work of the plant, and 
it must swell from its dormant condition and fill the cells 
before active life can begin. 

Now place in a deep saucer a number of layers of thick 
blotting paper and wet them well. Lay some of the 
swollen beans on this wet paper and cover the saucer with 
a pane of glass, and keep in a warm place. At the same 
time plant some in wet sand in a box with the eyes of the 
beans down. Watch those on the paper and in a little 
while you will see the pointed end of the stem you examine 
in the spht bean protruding through the little opening, and 
directly the two halves of the bean begin to separate and 
rise up, and become somewhat green in color. The stem 
runs along on the damp paper straight ahead and becomes 
a root, and shortly other roots branch from it, each with a 
pointed end. Examine these roots with an ordinary mag- 
nifying glass and you will see that the end of each rootlet 
is naked, while just back of it the root is covered with a 
velvety coating of fine hairs. 

The older botanists told us that the extreme tips of the 
roots of plants were soft and spongy, and they called them 
spongioles, supposing that it was by them that the plant 
got food from the soil. We now know better, and know 
that the means through which the plant takes food from 



64 Practical Farming 

the soil dissolved in the soil water, is the mass of fine root 
hairs just back of the pointed tip, and that instead of 
being the softest part the tip of the root is really a little 
older than the part just back of it. 

We have seen that the growth in a tree is carried on by 
the increase in cells circling around it under the bark. 
The same is true with the roots. The protective cover of 
bark is carried to the remotest rootlet, and the cells increase 
under it at the tip and around it everywhere. The added 
growth at the tip under the root-cap pushes the root for- 
ward in the soil, while the outer part wears away to some 
extent and is constantly renewed. You will understand 
at once that this is a wise provision, for if the extreme 
tip were really the youngest growing point it could never 
insert itself among the particles of the soil. The root 
hairs, which are the means through which the plant gets 
food from the soil, dry up and die off as the root gets older, 
while new ones arc constantly being formed out near the 
advancing root-cap; so that the roots are always foraging 
in new soil. This illustrates the error that a multitude 
of farmers make in putting manure or fertilizers only 
in the hill for corn. It would do the corn far more good 
at the critical period of earing if it were in the middle 
between the rows, where the advancing roots would find it 
at earing time. In the hill the roots soon pass it and are 
foraging in poorer soil which fails to sustain the growth 
started by the manure in the hill, and the corn plants 
soon show that they are failing. Knowing, too, that the 
portion of the roots engaged in getting food from the 
soil is a short part near the tip of the rootlets, we can 
understand the folly of running a plow deeply through 



The Anatomy and Physiology of Plants 65 

a corn field and tearing off the roots that were feeding 
the plants. 

But to return to our beans. Note the beans planted in 
the box of moist sand. The two halves of the bean sepa- 
rate as they come above the soil. They get larger, and 
green in color, and the little leaves that you saw in embryo 
in the split bean are developing into large green leaves. 
Until the plant takes on this green color it is entirely 
dependent for food on what was stored in the dry bean. 
The two halves, separating, form the cotyledons or seed 
leaves, though they never take on the character of true 
leaves, and it is not necessary they should in the bean 
because of the rapidity with which the second pair of 
leaves come out. But the thick cotyledons could remain 
under ground and feed the plant till the true leaves appear. 
In fact this is done by the garden pea and the acorn, the 
cotyledons of which always remain below ground, and the 
first leaves seen are the true leaves and not seed leaves. 

The green color is caused by certain granules in the 
living matter of the cells taking on a green color. These 
granules are called chlorophyll grains, and the green color 
they carry is the most important thing in the life of the 
higher-developed plants, as we shall see later. The little 
bean, now having roots, a pair of seed leaves, and a second 
joint and pair of leaves, is a complete plant, and has all 
the parts that any plant has, even to the largest tree; for 
the great tree is but a repetition of these plant units: a 
node or joint, an internode or space between the joints, 
and a pair of leaves or one leaf. The bean plant in the 
sand has these, and the great tree merely has more in 
number of the same things. 



66 Practical Farming 

How Plants We have said that the green granules in 

Get Food ^Yi^ living matter of the plant cells known as 

from the Air , , , „ . , 

chlorophyll, are one of the most important 

things in the life of the plant. And the green color 
is essential to their activity. Let a potato sprout in 
the dark and you may take the section of the stem and 
find that the granules are there, but have not taken 
on the green color. Find two potatoes of exactly the 
same weight. Let one sprout in darkness and keep the 
other one from sprouting till the sprouted one has made 
long white shoots. Then thoroughly dry them both as a 
chemist would dry them and you will find that the sprouted 
one has not gained anything in dry matter. There has 
simply been a transfer of the materials stored in the potato 
to a different form, and no real growth has been made. 
Now take two similar potatoes and let one of them sprout 
in the full light of the sun till there have been developed 
strong green shoots, then dry both again, and you will 
find that the potato that has made green sprouts has 
gained a little in dry matter. 

Hence we find that in some way the green color is an 
important thing in the plant life. By far the larger por- 
tion of the structure of all plants comes from the air, over 
95 per cent. How then does the plant get the material 
for growth from the air? In the leaves of every plant, 
especially on the underside of all leaves, there are numerous 
openings of microscopic size, on each side of which there 
is a cell something like a lip, and these two lips constitute 
really the mouths of the plant, for they are capable of 
opening and closing just as we can open and close our 
lips. They open between the loosely arranged cells in 



The Anatomy and Physiology of Plants 67 

the interior of the leaf. These cells are full of the green 
chlorophyll granules. The air, as we have seen, always 
contains a minute portion of carbon dioxide or carbonic 
acid gas. When the sun shines, and at no other time, the 
mouths of the leaf, or the stomata (singular stoma), open, 
and the air with the carbon dioxide, can penetrate to the 
interior of the leaf, there coming in contact with the green 
granules. This green material has the extraordinary 
power of breaking up the combination of the carbon and 
oxygen in the carbon dioxide and taking in the carbon. 
The leaf throws off the oxygen and thus serves to purify 
the air from the carbon dioxide which, while furnishing 
food to the plant, is poisonous to animal life. It cannot 
of course be determined that the plant does throw off the 
identical oxygen that was combined with the carbon, but 
it does throw off about the same amount. Getting this 
carbon, then, from the air, the living matter in the cells of 
the leaf goes to work to make further combinations with 
it and the hydrogen, oxygen, and other matters brought 
from the soil. So it constructs new material for new cell 
walls, for renewing the waste of hving matter, and for the 
purposes of growth in general. 

The materials elaborated in the leaves are sent to every 
part of the plant where cells are forming and growth is 
going on. To the remotest tip of the shoots and the 
farthest rootlet, the materials for growth are sent from 
the leaves, so that whatever the leaf of a plant is that will 
be what the plant as a whole is. No mistake is ever made. 
The leaves of the apple tree manufacture material for 
apple wood, apple roots, and apple leaves only. The oak 
and the pine growing side by side with their roots inter- 



68 Practical Farming 

laced, never forget thai they are oaks and pines, and that 
each takes food from the soil in a (hlTerent way and makes 
a difTcrcnt article in the final result of its work. The soil 
water, brought up by the roots and distributed to the leaves 
through the elongated vessels which branch into the leaf 
and form what we call the veins of the leaf, has food for the 
plants in a very dilute state. The stomata of the leaves 
then take on another office, and to some slight extent the 
whole leaf aids in this. This is the eva[)oration or trans- 
piration of moisture, in the form of invisible vapor, into 
the air. Thus the plant condenses the watery food, re- 
taining the food and ])arting with the surplus moisture. 
Sometimes this evaporation becomes too rapid, and the 
moisture passes off more rapidly than the roots can supply 
it from a com])aratively dry soil. The result is that the 
leaves wilt and the stomata in the leaves close, so that 
the evajioration is checked. The wilting of the leaf is 
Nature's method of checking evaporation. If too long 
continued of course the plant dies, but under ordinary 
conditions the plant during a night will have taken up 
more moisture from the soil and the morning fmds it 
freshened again and ready to resume work. 

If you will examine the arrangement of the leaves on a 
branch of any plant or tree you will find that they are 
arranged so that each leaf has its own share of exposure 
to light and air, so that each leaf has its own opportunity 
to do its work. 

When the leaves take in the carbon dioxide and in this 
way get carbon by breaking up the combination with the 
oxygen, the plant goes to work, as we have said, to manu- 
facture the materials needed for growth, and for the sup- 



The Anatomy and Physiology of Plants 69 

port of ils living matter. The first thing we can find that 
is formed in this way is starch, but it is probable that 
really some form of sugar for the immediate consumption 
of the growing plant is first formed, though it cannot be 
detected. Starch is called a carbohydrate because it con- 
sists of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. Carbohydrates 
are used by plants for building purposes and as a storage 
form for food to be used in subsequent growth. Starch 
is largely stored up in seeds, but in some seeds is very 
largely changed into oil, as in the cotton seed and others. 
When we put a seed in the ground and it imbibes water 
and begins to germinate, the starch is transformed into a 
sort of sugar which the growing plant can use, for starch 
as starch is not digestible by animals or plants. 

In the germinating seed there is a sort of ferment formed 
that changes starch to sugar without itself being in any 
way changed. We have the same thing called diastase in 
our saliva, and when we eat starchy food this is mixed with 
it and changes the starch to a glucosidc or sort of sugar, 
so that it is made digestible. Starch, then, is a storage 
for food. It is stored in the cells of the plant and when 
active growth begins it changes into sugar for use. Take 
a potato that has sprouted, and on cooking it you will find 
that it has become clammy and has a sweetish taste, 
owing to this transformation of the starch. In seeds 
where the food is stored in the form of oil the oil is trans- 
formed back to starch and the starch to sugar for the use 
of the plant till it can develop green leaves and get more 
material from the air for the manufacture of more starch. 
From the starch all the long list of substances called 
carbohydrates is formed; the sugars, oils, acids, and 



70 Practical Farming 

woody ni:iU'ri;il for trees. 'J'lu' only ])arl of the jjlant con- 
taining nitrogen is the living rnatlcr or ])roto])lasm, which 
does all the work of the plant. We find, then, in all our 
food crops these two classes of substances: the nitrogenous 
or proteid materials and the carbohydrates and fats. Of 
these and their nature we will treat in another lesson. 

Take a large plant of green Indian corn 
How Plants .^^^^^ ^.^,, n ^^^ .j,^^| ^^,^.j ,^ ^ .p, ^| jj 
Get Food ... 

from the Soil thoroughly by artificial heat so as to drive 

off all the water. Weigh it again, and you 

will find that it has lost a great deal by parting with the 

water it contained. Now burn it. Hum it thoroughly, 

as a chemist would in a crucible, till nothing is left but 

])ure white ash. With the exception of the nitrogen and 

water whiih has been driven off into the air, this little 

handful of ashes contains all that the plant took from the 

soil, and you can realize how small a portion of the bulk 

of the ])lant came from the soil. The ashes contain the 

lime, })hos])horus, ])otassium, and other mineral elements. 

You have destroyed the stalk of corn as a stalk of corn, 

but you have not really destroyed anything. You have 

simply changed to another form of energy the energy of 

])osition located there by the sunlight acting on the green 

leaves. Thus in burning coal we get back the radiant 

energy of the sunlight of long ages ago when the plants 

that formed the coal-beds grew; and we send back to the 

air the matc'rials that in the first j)lace came from the air, 

the carbon dioxide and the water, so that nature can begin 

to use them over again in the construction of other plants. 

We can change the form of matter but we can never 

destroy anything. 



The Anatomy and Physiology oj Plants 71 

Now, how does the plant get these mineral elements 
from the soil? In treating of the germination of the bean 
we have seen that near the pointed root-cap there is a 
short space covered with velvety hairs. These hairs on 
the rootlet are the absorbing agents of the plant through 
which it gets food from the soil. The pointed root-cap 
we learned is projected through the soil by the increase 
of cells behind it; and as fast as new root growlli is made 
there is a new belt of root hairs formed as the old ones dry 
off, so that the roots are always foraging in fresh soil. 
Since these root hairs are of extremely minute size, though 
they have been demonstrated to be tubular, they cannot 
take in any undissolved matter, and hence the food for 
the plant must be completely dissolved in the soil water. 

There is some evidence, as you saw in an earlier lesson, 
that the root hairs themselves have a power to hasten the 
solution of matters in the soil, and they certainly have the 
jjower to select from the dissolved plant-food in the soil 
water the elements they most desire. Thus, one plant 
will use potash in much larger percentage than another, 
and another will seek out the phosphorus and nitrogen 
more largely. No matter how the roots interlace in the 
forest each tree does its own work and never by any mis- 
hap takes on the work of another. 

The soil water, laden with the j)lant food taken in with 
it, is carried up through the long tubular-shaped cells and 
the veins of the leaf till it meets the carbon taken in 
from the air; and then, in the leaf, which is the labora- 
tory of the plant, all the materials that add growth to 
the plant are formed. The water that rushes u[) into 
the trees in the spiring is not sap but merely the material 



72 Practical Farming 

for the manufacture of the elaborated sap in the leaves. 
The plant gets from the soil nitrogen, phosphorus, potas- 
sium, lime, magnesium, sulphur, and some other minor 
things. The nitrogen originally comes from the air to the 
soil, and we have means for getting it back from the air, 
as we shall see. 

Each part of the plant, we have observed, has its par- 
ticular function. The leaves, with their chlorophyll, take 
in and decompose the carbon dioxide in the air, appro- 
priate the carbon for starch-making, and return oxygen 
to the air to purify it for animal Hfe. The roots, with 
their constantly multiplying areas of root hairs, take the 
various ash elements and the nitrogen from the soil dis- 
solved in the soil water, and carry the dissolved food up 
through the conducting bundles of cells to the leaves. 
There the material for construction and for the food of 
the Hving matter is formed, and from this elaborated 
material all the increase in the cells of the plant is made, 
both to tops and roots. It is plain, then, that roots are 
the product of stems and leaves, and not stems and leaves 
of roots. It is perfectly possible in most plants to place a 
cutting under proper conditions, and from food stored in 
the cells of the cutting to form roots, and in this way to 
make a new plant that is identical with the plant from 
which the cutting came. In some plants it is easy, indeed, 
to make new plants also from cuttings of the roots, for on 
many roots there occur what are known as adventitious 
buds. But this fact does not contradict the statement 
that roots are the product of stems, for the material from 
which growth is made from a root cutting is the result of 
materials stored there by the stems and leaves. 



The Anatomy and Physiology of Plants 73 

Some grccn-lcavcd jjlants grow immersed in water, and 

these get their carbon from the air always present in water 

and in turn they keep the water supphed with oxygen to 

support aquatic life in animals that live in the water. 

Put a few fish in a vessel of water, and they soon exhaust 

the oxygen and are found sucking air at the surface and 

soon die. But if a few water plants are grown in the vessel 

where the fish are they remain healthy and thrive. This 

shows that water always contains some air, and that plants 

are essential to animal life in water as on land. Without 

plants there could be no life either on land or in the water, 

for plants use the minerals which animals cannot use and 

transform them into shapes that are the food of animals. 

On the other hand, a large part of the food of animals is 

excreted and returned to the soil for the use of plants, and 

the dead bodies of animals return to the earth to feed 

other plants, thus keej)ing up the round of nature. 

Plants are increased in various ways. 

How Plants The natural way in which all of our higher 

re erpe u- p^^^j^^g ^^^, increased is by the seed. In the 
ated and ^ •' 

Perfected blossoms of plants the leaves, which on other 

parts of the plant perform the work of taking 

in carbon, are transformed into the various organs, each 

having its special office to perform in perpetuating the life 

of the plant. 

The normal, complete, and perfect flower has four sets 

of organs. P'irst, at the end of the stem bearing the flower 

we find what is called the calyx of the flower. This is 

commonly green, but sometimes colored (botanists do 

not class green as a color, it being the natural color of 

plants, and when a part is said to be colored it means 



74 Practical Farming 

that it is some color beside green). Inside of this calyx 
there is a row or rows of colored leaves, known as petals, 
and these taken together form the corolla of the flower. 
The calyx, the separate leaves of which are called sepals, 
and the corolla take no part in the formation of the seed. 
They are the protective parts of the flower; and by the 
color of the corolla bees and other insects are attracted 
to the flowers and serve to set the seed, as we shall see. 
Inside the corolla there are a row or rows of still more 
transformed leaves, commonly slender and hair-like, and 
on the end of each of these is a closed vessel containing 
minute cells of hving matter. These are called the sta- 
mens or male part of the flower, and the vessels at the 
ends are called anthers. The little cells of living matter 
contained in these anthers are what is called pollen. As 
lliis pollen matures the vessels containing it open in 
various ways, so that the line pollen grains are dispersed. 
In the interior center of the flower is another organ called 
the pistil. A normal pistil consists of an ovary or seed 
vessel at the base, a more or less elongated stem called 
the style, and a space at the top of this which is entirely 
bare of any skin or covering and for a time is moist, and 
v^hich is called the stigma. Now, when the pollen in the 
anthers of the stamens is mature and is dispersed it falls 
on this moist stigma. At once the little cells begin to 
grow and ])enetratc downward through the style of the 
pistil till they reach the ovary or seed vessel. In this 
ovary there are certain bodies known as ovules. The 
living matter of the pollen reaches the living matter in 
these ovules, and at once a new growth is started and 
finally the germ of a new plant is formed — a seed — and is 



The Anatomy and Physiology oj Plants 75 

surrounded by or includes a store of material that can be 
used by it in germinating when the seed is planted. The 
seed now formed, with its germ and store of food, parts 
with its water and ripens into a perfect seed, which is capa- 
ble of remaining dormant for a longer or shorter period 
in different plants; and when placed in the soil it imbibes 
water and the living matter again becomes active, and the 
food stored in the seed supports the growth until green 
leaves are formed and new material for growth can be got 
from the air. 

We have described a normal, complete, and perfect 
flower. A complete flower has all the organs named, but 
a flower may be perfect for all the purposes of seed- 
making when the corolla and calyx are absent, hence the 
distinction between a perfect and a complete flower. 
Some species bear flowers on one plant which have only 
the male organs, and have the pistils or female organs on 
flowers borne by other plants. Some plants, like our 
Indian corn, have male flowers or stamens on one part of 
the plants and the pistils or female flowers on another 
part. 

In Indian com the anthers with their pollen are the tassel, 
and the pistils that belong to every grain on the ear are 
what we call the silks, and the part of the silks that extend 
beyond the ear are the stigmas which receive the pollen, 
and this perfects the embryo or germ in the grain of corn. 
The tassels with the pollen are elevated so that the pollen 
does not generally fall on the stigmas of the same plant, 
but is blown to others. But in a com field this pollen is 
made in such great quantities that all the pistils usually 
get a supply, and nature adopts this plan to prevent too 



76 Practical Farming 

close breeding. One can easily see that this is so by 
observing a sohtary plant of Indian corn that grows at a 
distance from any other corn plant. You will find that 
only a few grains will be formed on the cobs, because only 
a little of the pollen fell direct on the stigmas of the pistils. 
You will also see that a plot of yellow corn planted to the 
windward of a plot of white corn will affect the white corn, 
and make scattered grains of yellow corn by reason of the 
wind-borne pollen. In this way corn will often mix a 
long distance. All of our plants and crops make a great 
abundance of pollen in order that there may be no lack 
of seed-making. 

All this is Nature's process for the increase of plant 
life. Man has devised many other methods for the in- 
crease of plants. It is found that by crossing in various 
ways of the pollen of one plant on the pistils of another 
the plants grown from seed can be made to vary greatly. 
Hence, in our fruit trees we seldom resort to the seed 
except for the purpose of getting new varieties. We con- 
tinue the identical plant by dividing it in various ways. 
This can be done by making cuttings and rooting them 
as we have shown, or the cutting may be inserted as a graft 
or bud on another plant which already has a root, and 
this serves to sustain the new part that is attached to it 
and allowed to make the future tree. Or we may bend a 
branch to the earth and cover it till rooted and then have 
a new plant identical with that from which it came. Of 
all these artificial methods of increasing plants we will 
treat in detail in further lessons. Our farm crops are 
grown from seeds, and the perfection of the seed is a 
matter of great importance to the farmer. Every farmer, 



The Anatomy and Physiology 0} Plants 77 

therefore, should understand the methods best adapted to 

the perfection of the seed he uses for his crops. 

Much has been pubhshed of late years in 

Plant-breeding j-ggQ^j-d to the improvement of the corn crop, 
Applied to the , , i i i , 

Corn Crop ^^^ great stress has been placed on the 

proper selection of ears for this purpose. 
But the mere selection of pretty and well-formed ears 
will do little toward the improvement of the corn crop. 
In any improvement of our plants used for farm crops we 
must make a careful study of the whole plant. If we 
breed corn simply for a pretty ear we may get the pretty 
ear borne on a very undesirable plant with but a single ear, 
and that too far from the ground and liable to be blown 
over. In starting the improvement of Indian corn we 
must remember what has been said of the way corn is 
fertilized by the pollen around it. Each silk is a separate 
pistil, with its separate ovary, the whole of which is trans- 
formed by the pollen into a fruit or grain. So, instead of 
assuming that the ear is the unit to begin with we must 
know that each grain on the cob may have, and probably 
has, a distinct male parent or pollen grain, and is there- 
fore entirely different in its inheritance from the grain 
just beside it. Now, if the pretty and well-formed ear 
we have selected by the score card has grown where it is 
surrounded by inferior plants it is easy to see that it will 
be as apt to reproduce the inferior plants as the one from 
which it came. Therefore, the farmer who wishes to 
improve his corn should plant a plot to be grown for seed. 
He should use com that has long been grown in his sec- 
tion, for com from far north or south of any given locality 
will not do well there till acclimated. He should give this 



78 Practical Farming 

plot the best attention in the cultivation. Then, when the 
plants begin to make tassels, go through and remove these 
from the plants that show no ear coming, and from all of 
an inferior character and of too tall and ungainly stature 
or too stunted growth, or that are evidently of inferior 
production. In this way the pollen will be produced only 
by the best plants in the plot. From the best ears grown 
in this way select seed for another plot, and use the gen- 
eral product for the field planting. Take the same care 
every year with the seed plot to get all the plants nearer 
and nearer to your ideal of a perfect corn plant. 

Breed at first for productiveness in ears, and after the 
trait of bearing two or more cars is well established it 
will be time enough to go by the score card and select the 
best ears. I have given these directions for the selection 
of seed corn as it is one of the important crops and one 
that yields readily to proper selection. You want plants 
of corn of a sturdy habit, with short joints and broad 
leaves, for the leaf is the most important organ in the 
general development of the plant. Similar methods will 
be of value with all of our crops, whether wheat, cotton, 
or any other crop ; for only from the best formed and best 
matured seed can the best crop be grown. Of other crops 
we will have more in detail hereafter. We have used 
Indian com to illustrate how plants develop. How the 
roots of this corn plant should be developed and im- 
proved we will discuss more fully when we come to tillage 
of crops. 



CHAPTER V 

PLANT FOOD IN THE SOIL 

WHILE plants get the larger part of their bulk 
from carbonaceous material constructed from 
carbon taken out of the air, we have seen that 
the elements which they get dissolved in the soil water 
through their roots are of vital importance, for without the 
water itself the carbon would be useless, and without 
the nitrogen there could be no protoplasm to continue the 
life work of the plant. A fertile and productive soil 
is not only one in which there is a good supply of the 
elements which the plant gets from the soil, but one in 
which the mechanical texture is such, and the condition 
of the plant food is such, that the roots of plants can make 
use of the food. 

Years ago the notion prevailed that all that was neces- 
sary to show the farmer how to improve the productive- 
ness of his soil was for the chemist to make an analysis of 
it and show him what it lacked so that he could add the 
lacking materials. But experience has shown that this 
analysis is of little value to the farmer, for the chemist can 
simply tell him what the soil contains, but cannot tell him 
whether plants can use these materials or not. 

Sometimes certain plant foods, especially potash, which 
are in an unavailable condition in the soil, may be made 
available by the use of hme or plaster, which is the sul- 
phate of lime, and many farmers seeing that lime helps 

79 



80 Practical Farming 

their soil have jumped to the conclusion that all they have 
to do to make their soil rich and productive is to keep 
using lime on it, not realizing that the effect of the lime 
is to make available the supply of potash that already 
exists in their soil. Hence, there came about the proverb 
that "lime enriches the father and impoverishes the son." 
While this is true when hme is incautiously used, with the 
idea that it is simply a manure, lime is of great value in 
improved agriculture, as we shall sec later. 

Plants cannot grow in any soil which does not contain 
nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron, magne- 
sium, sulphur, sodium (for some species), chlorin, and 
siUcon. Most of these exist in inexhaustible amounts in 
all cultivable soils. Those which are Hable to become 
exhausted or deficient from cultivation are nitrogen, 
phosphorus, potassium, and sometimes calcium. The 
crops we grow take these in larger amounts than other 
elements. If any one of these is in the soil in a smaller 
percentage than a proper development of the plant re- 
quires, the crop will be smaller even though the other 
elements are in full supply. The soil that has a very 
small percentage of potassium and phosphorus may have 
a large supply of nitrogen; and the plants may make a 
rank growth and yet fail to perfect grain, since the per- 
fection of the grain depends on these elements. In like 
manner there may be a full supply of these available and 
yet a deficiency of nitrogen, and the plants will make a 
feeble growth, and lack the healthy green of flourishing 
crops. Hence it is necessary that the plant food in the 
soil shall be as well balanced as it has been found neces- 
sary to balance the rations for our domestic animals. 



Plant Food in the Soil 81 

Then again, a soil may be abundantly supplied with all 
the elements of plant food in a perfectly available form, 
but if there is no water to dissolve them for the use of 
plants the soil will be a barren one, or produce only such 
plants as are able to exist in desert conditions. The re- 
sults of irrigating the desert lands of the West show this 
very plainly. Still again, the soil may possess an abund- 
ance of plant food, but the temperature of the soil may be 
kept too low by the presence of water near the surface, 
the water, too, shutting out the full supply of air which is 
essential to plant roots. So the soil will be unproductive 
except in such plants as prefer these saturated conditions, 
and the growing of farm crops on such land imperatively 
demands the drainage of the surplus water. Then, too, 
as we have said, the physical and mechanical nature of 
the soil may prevent the prosperity of plant life on it, and 
means for ameliorating these conditions are usually within 
the reach of the farmer, as we shall endeavor to show 
later. 

While all the elements named are essential to plant life, 
some of them exist in all soils so abundantly that there is 
never any need for using them as additional plant food. 
Iron, for instance, is the most abundant of all the ele- 
ments. Our clays are colored with the oxidized iron, 
and we could hardly make up a mixture of fertihzing 
materials without at the same time getting some iron in it. 
The green color of plant leaves caused by the chlorophyll 
grains, is due to iron, and so long as trees and plants in 
general make green leaves it is evidence of an abundance 
of iron. Sulphur is essential, but it is always in combi- 
nation with other elements in the soil and the fcrtihzers 



82 Practical Farming 

used, and we do not use sulphur as sulphur. (In fact, as 
we shall try to explain, we do not use any of the elements 
in the soil as pure elements.) Sodium is essential mainly 
to marine plants, and is of little use in the plants usually 
grown as farm crops. There was some years ago an effort 
made by the salt manufacturers to make the farmers be- 
lieve that sodium could take the place of potassium. But 
you have been told that plants will not thrive where there 
is a deficiency of potash, though there may be a large per- 
centage of sodium. None of our cultivated crops use 
sodium to any great extent, though the chloride of sodium, 
common salt, may have some effect in the solution of 
other matters in the soil, and to some extent may be useful 
to such crops as cabbage and beets, which in their wild 
state are natives of the seashore. Lime exists in the soil 
as the carbonate of calcium, and is largely used by plants 
to render harmless certain acids, such as oxalic acid, which 
are formed in the plant. The oxalic acid is located in 
crystals of the oxalate of lime in certain cells, and this 
form being insoluble in the cell sap, the acid is rendered 
harmless to the plant. Lime is also found in all the cell 
walls. But the supply of hme needed as plant food is 
usually abundant in all cultivated soils, and it is mainly 
valuable as a reagent, as will be explained in full. 

Nitrogen is a gas which we have shown to be the larger 
part of the mixture of nitrogen and oxygen which we call 
air. Hence it must be got into combination with other 
matters before it can be located in the soil and become 
available to plants. Considerable quantities of nitrogen 
are brought to the soil in the rain water in the form of 
ammonia, which is a hydride of nitrogen. The decay of 



Plant Food in the Soil 83 

organic matter, or matter that has once formed the bodies 
of animals or of plants, also brings ammonia to the soil. 
But it has been found that the roots of ordinary plants do 
not use ammonia. When the organic matter decays in 
the soil, however, the decay is caused by certain low forms 
of plant life known as bacteria, which hasten the decay by 
their growth and through this decay release the ammonia. 
Then other forms of these bacteria, which thrive in a soil 
abounding in organic decay or humus, feed upon the 
ammonia and the final result is the formation of nitric acid 
in the soil through their oxidation of the nitrogen. Then 
this nitric acid at once combines with whatever alkaline 
base may be present, usually lime or potash, and we have 
a nitrate which plants can use at once, and which if not 
used at once is soon washed from the soil by reason of its 
great solubility. Careful experiments have shown that 
our green-leaved plants use nitrogen only after it has 
been brought to the condition of a nitrate, and as this 
process of reducing organic matter and releasing its am- 
monia and converting it into nitric acid is carried on by 
the minute plants in the soil known as bacteria, it is evi- 
dent that to maintain this useful life in the soil there must 
be in the soil a due amount of organic decay or humus. 
The office of nitrogen in the plant seems to be the promo- 
tion of vital activity tending to rapid growth. But this 
growth can be maintained and matured properly only 
when the nitrogen has associated with it a due percentage 
of the ash elements which plants get from the soil. Prob- 
ably the most important of these is phosphorus. 

We have shown that we cannot use nitrogen as a pure 
element in the feeding of plants. In like manner we can- 



84 Practical Far}ni)ig 

The Role of not use pliosphorus. Pure phosphorus takes 
Phosphorus j-j.^, ^^ ^^^^ ^^ hcm2, exposed to the oxygen 
in the Plant or jo 

of the air. This fact is made use of in 

the manufacture of our friction matches. Hence we 
must get our phosphorus in some combination in which 
it can be used by the roots of plants and can for this pur- 
pose be dissolved in the soil water. Phosphoric acid, the 
oxide of phosphorus, is generally found combined with 
calcium, forming the phosphate of lime. It is found in 
this shape in fossil rocks and in the bones of animals in 
general. As it exists in soil it is one of the most rapidly 
exhausted forms of plant food. The ripening grain takes 
{phosphorus from the soil. The availability of the phos- 
phorus in the soil depends upon the form in which it 
exists. In freshly ground bones it is sooner made avail- 
able than in the pulverized fossil rock, because of the more 
rapid decay of the fresh bones. But unlike nitrogen, it 
does not rapidly leach away from the soil in the drainage 
water, for a good loamy soil or clay soil will hold on to it 
till some plant calls for it, but in case there is more of the 
soluble phosphoric acid applied than plants at once use 
it will revert to a less soluble form and remain to become 
more slowly available. 

The exact office which phosphorus performs in the plant 
is less fully understood than that of other elements. So 
far as we know it seems to be mainly useful in the transfer 
of formed materials to points where maturity is needed, as 
in the ripening of fruits and seeds. There may be great 
activity in the plant through an abundance of nitrogen, 
and yet the grain may fail to |)erfect through the defi- 
ciency of phosphorus. 



Plant Food in the Soil 85 

The Role of Potassium is a metallic element, and like 

Potassium jn |.]^g other elements cannot be used by plants 
the Plant . . , , , , , , , • 

m its elemental form, but must be had m 

some combination. We get potassium in the form of 
the oxide of potassium, or as it is commonly called pot- 
ash. No plant can thrive in the absence of available 
potash in the soil. In our clay soils, which are the 
result of the decomposition of granitic or feldspathic 
rocks, there is usually a large supply of potash in the form 
of an anhydrous silicate, which becomes slowly soluble 
through the action of the lime in the soil and the carbon 
dioxide in the rain water, and it can be rendered more 
rapidly available by fresh apphcations of water-slaked 
lime, which, as one chemist has said, "pushes out" the 
potash from its insoluble silicate. While nitrogen rapidly 
leaches from the soil in the drainage water, there is but a 
sHght loss of potash in this way, for the soil holds the 
phosphorus and potash much more strongly than it does 
nitrates, and but the merest trace of these is usually found 
in the drainage water. Potash is much more slowly used 
up from the soil by crops than phosphorus is, since in the 
ripening of grain the potash largely returns to the roots. 
Still there are crops like potatoes and tobacco which 
select far more potash than other plants and hence these 
exhaust the soil supply most rapidly. Potash also exists 
in nature in the combinations with chlorine, sulphur, 
and carbon, making the muriate, sulphate, and car- 
bonate of potash. These are all readily soluble forms, 
and are the forms in which potash is most commonly used 
in fertilizers. It is also combined with nitrogen in the 
form of the nitrate of potash, or as it is commonly called, 



86 Pmrtiia! 7^ /;•;;//;/<; 

saltpeter. Wood ashes, especially those liom the haril 
woods, contain a considerable percentage of potash and a 
large percentage of lime, and are of value as a source of 
potash. As an ingredient in a fertilizer, potash is of less 
importance on many soils than phosphoric acid or nitro- 
gen, because of its greater abundance in clay soils and 
because less of it is removed in the crops than of nitrogen 
or phosphorus. Nevertheless it is important that a sulTi- 
cient supply be at hand in the soil in an available form; 
and sandy or peaty soils are generally deficient in potash. 
Manufacturers of commercial fertilizers have as a rule 
given too much prominence to phosphoric acid in their 
mixtures and too Uttle to potash, especially for use on such 
crops as largely select potash. In the economy of the 
plant it has been fully shown that phosphoric acid does 
not have its full etTect unless there is a due sujiply of potash 
present, and on the other hand potash will not give the 
best results in the growth of the plant unless there is also 
a due percentage of phosphoric acid available. The inter- 
dependence of these can be easily understood when we 
realize that the office of potash in the plant is to favor 
the formation of starch and that of phosphoric acid is the 
conveyance of the formed material to points where it is 
needed in the construction of new cell walls. Starch, 
which we have seen is the starting point of materials for 
building, and the storage form of plant food, cannot be 
abundantly made for phosphoric acid to convey to the 
grain as plant food, unless sufficient potash be available. 
Though the combination in which potash is applied to 
the soil may be perfectly soluble in the soil water, the 
absorptive power of a good loamy or clay soil is such 



Plant Food in the Soil 87 

that it will retain the potash from a combination hke chlo- 
ride of potash while the chlorine may be leached away. 
That is, the absorptive power of the soil is such that it 
will rob a complete solution of the mineral elements and 
keep them till some plant roots need them. 

Lime exists in rocks and in the shells of marine shell- 
fish as the carbonate of calcium. By burning the rocks 
or shells we get the oxide, and this, rapidly slaked with 
water, makes a hydrated lime which is still quite caustic 
and active, but rapidly returns on exposure to the air to 
the more insoluble form of the carbonate. Lime is essen- 
tial to plant life, but while large percentages of lime are 
found in the ashes of plants a comparatively small per- 
centage is really used as plant food. It is taken in because 
it abounds in the soil water and is useful for the thickening 
of the cell walls in woody plants, and is also used by plants 
to render harmless certain acid that is formed as a sort of 
excretory or waste matter. This was discussed in Chapter 
II. Though lime is essential to plant life there are few 
soils in which it is not abundantly present for this purpose. 
Nevertheless fresh appHcations of lime are often very 
beneficial. Soils through long cultivation are apt to be- 
come acid, and many of our crops will not thrive in an 
acid soil. Lime, then, is useful to correct the acidity of 
the soil and render it slightly alkaline in its nature. Lime 
also has a good effect on hea\^ clay soils, preventing the 
clay from forming hard masses, by flocculating it into 
small masses that aggregate loosely together. The use of 
lime on a sandy soil has been spoken of in Chapter I. 
While lime to a small extent is plant food, it differs from 
the other elements which we have mentioned as plant food 



88 Practical Farming 

in the fact that it is more a stimulant and reagent in 
rendering plant food already in the soil available to 
plants. 

In a soil abounding in vegetable decay the work of the 
bacteria which change the organic nitrogen into nitrates 
is greatly helped by lime, for these microscopic plants have 
a power which no green-leaved plant has, in that they can 
get the carbon they need from the carbonate of Hme, while 
green-leaved plants get it from the air as we have before 
explained. Lime should never be mixed in fermenting 
animal manures, as it tends to make the ammonia in the 
manure more volatile and to drive it off into the air. On 
the other hand plaster, which is the sulphate of lime, has 
a tendency to prevent the loss of ammonia by putting it into 
a less volatile form. 

It is supposed by some that the use of the dissolved 
phosphatic rock or acid phosphate is apt to render the soil 
acid, by the plants taking up the phosphorus and leaving 
the sulphuric acid which at once unites with the lime 
already in the soil, and in this way robs the soil of lime 
carbonate. In this case lime freshly slaked in water 
and applied will restore the lime needed as a carbonate, 
and will tend to sweeten the soil. 

It has been found that a sour condition in the soil is 
detrimental to the bacterial life needed there, and in this 
condition clover fails to grow, and the farmer says that 
his land is "clover sick." This condition always indi- 
cates the need of lime. Lime is of great value to the 
student farmer, but must be used intelligently because it 
may be of damage to the man who does not study his 
conditions. 



Plant Food in the Soil 89 

We will now examine the sources of various plant foods, 
and will first deal with nitrogen. 

We have explained that nitrogen exists as 
jj. a gas in the air, and that to get it in the soil 

from which our crops must derive it, it must 
be in some combination, and that the final form in which 
plants use it is in combination of nitric acid with a base, 
forming a nitrate of lime, potash, or some other base in 
the soil. When it is reduced to this available form it is 
so readily soluble that it washes out of the soil more rap- 
idly than any other form of plant food, and hence must be 
more frequently renewed in the soil. Then, too, when 
the vegetable matter in the soil is rapidly oxidized or burnt 
up by the continuous cultivation of one crop year after 
year on the same land, as our cotton farmers and the 
wheat farmers of the Northwest have been doing, there is 
a serious loss into the air more than through the cropping. 
Nitrogen, when purchased in any form, is always the most 
costly of all the plant foods that make up our commercial 
fertilizers. It is found in all decay of vegetable or animal 
matter, and is then known as organic nitrogen. A soil 
abounding in humus or vegetable decay is usually supplied 
with nitrogen more or less available. One special value 
of stable manure is in the organic matter which is applied 
with it, and which, having to pass through the process of 
nitrification in the soil through the agency of bacteria, 
makes the more lasting effect of such treatment. We also 
get nitrogen in an organic form more readily available in 
the dried blood from the great slaughterhouses. When 
this is carefully dried and is of a red color it is far more 
valuable than that which has heated and has turned to a 



90 Practical Farming 

black color. The reel blood may contain as much us 15 
per cent, of nitrogen. A similar and important source of 
nitrogen is the dried and pulverized scrap from the fish- 
oil factories, which contains 8 per cent, of nitrogen and 
nearly as much of phosphoric acid. 

Another product from the slaughterhouses is what is 
known as tankage. All the refuse animal scraps which 
cannot be utilized as food for men are boiled down and 
dried and ])ulverized. Its value depends on the material 
used, so that tankage varies greatly in the percentage of 
nitrogen. Some manufacturers of fertilizers have used 
ground leather scraps, wool and hair waste, and horns 
as a source of nitrogen. These are of little value in a fer- 
tilizer on account of their slow decay. 

A great source of nitrogen is cotton-seed meal, which is 
the by-product in the manufacture of cotton-seed oil. 
The ])omace left after pressing castor-oil beans is also 
pulverized and used in like manner. Cotton-seed meal 
will contain from 7 to 8 per cent, of nitrogen and also some 
phosphoric acid and potash. The best authorities, how- 
ever, believe that this meal should not be used as a fer- 
tilizer direct, since its feeding value as a com})onent part 
of a well-balanced ration for farm animals is greater than 
its manurial value, while the larger part of the nitrogen 
can still be recovered in the manure, and thus greater 
profit will accrue to the farmer than by using it as a direct 
manure. But all manufacturers of fertilizers use it very 
largely in their mixtures. 

I'ormerly one of the chief sources of nitrogen was in 
the Peruvian guano from the Chincha Islands in Peru. 
But this deposit was long since used up, and the Peruvian 



Plant Food in the Soil 91 

guano of to-day comes from a different set of islands and 
has a far lower percentage of nitrogen, though a high 
total of phosphoric acid. One of the greatest sources of 
nitrogen of late years is the nitrate of soda found in Peru. 
This, being already in the form of a nitrate, is at once 
available to plants, and is always to be applied to growing 
])Iants and not to dormant ones in winter, since if not 
used at once by plants it is readily leached by the soil. 
Another important source of nitrogen is the sulphate of 
ammonia. This salt when pure contains 21.2 per cent, 
of nitrogen, ammonia being a hydride of nitrogen, and in 
the ordinary commercial forms it has 20 per cent, of nitro- 
gen. This makes it far richer than nitrate of soda. In 
the manufacture of boneblack for the sugar refineries by 
distillation it is obtained, and also from the waste ammo- 
niacal liquor from the gas works. Of late years im- 
proved methods of making coke have increased the 
amount of sulphate of ammonia saved in the process. 
The sulphate of ammonia becomes more quickly avail- 
able to plants than the organic nitrogen in animal refuse 
since in that form the ammonia needs first to be released 
before the process of nitrification or the forming of nitrates 
can be accomplished, while the ammonia is ready at once 
for the work of the bacteria that carry on this process of 
making nitric acid. But it has been found that on soils 
that are to any extent acid the application of the sulphate 
of ammonia is actually poisonous to plants until the 
acidity is corrected by hme. 

We have seen that phosphorus is the element most 
generally deficient in old cultivated soils, and since we 
cannot get it from the air as we can nitrogen, as will be 



92 Practical Farming 

Sources of explained later, it must be returned to the 
Phosphorus g^jj -^^ ^j^^ manure, or fertilizers applied. 
In some cases where farmers find it profitable to feed 
on the farm food raised elsewhere it may be possible 
to keep up the supply of phosphorus in the soil with- 
out the purchase of phosphates. And right here we are 
reminded that in many parts of the country the farmers 
have got into the habit of calling all commercial fertilizers 
phosphates. Of course, all complete fertilizer mixtures 
have some phosphate or generally phosphoric acid in 
them, but the term phosphate is applicable only to the 
dissolved phosphatic rock known as acid phosphate. 
The complete mixtures are always called commercial 
fertilizers. Formerly, almost the entire supply of phos- 
phorus came from the bones of animals. When these 
bones are ground raw they will usually contain from 20 
to 28 per cent, of phosphoric acid and about 4 per cent, 
of nitrogen. Since the phosphoric acid is in an insoluble 
form its becoming available depends largely on the fine- 
ness of the material, and if the bones are fresh it is hard to 
get them very fine on account of the oily matter associated 
with them. To rid fresh bones of this oily matter they are 
often steamed. This steaming also takes out most of the 
nitrogen. Accordingly the steamed bone is valuable only 
for its phosphoric acid, though at times a small percentage 
of nitrogen may remain. But as a source of phosphoric 
acid the steamed bone is better than the raw. 

Tankage, which we have referred to as a source of nitro- 
gen, also contains bone and furnishes a considerable 
amount of phosphoric acid in variable amounts depending 
on the character of the material used. 



Plant Food in the Soil 93 

The fish scrap, which is valued mainly as a source of 
nitrogen, also has a considerable percentage of phos- 
phoric acid, and as we have before said, there is a small 
percentage of phosphoric acid in cotton-seed meal and 
castor-oil pomace. 

Animal charcoal is made from bones. It is used in the 
refining of sugar, and after this in the manufacture of 
fertilizers for the percentage of phosphoric acid it con- 
tains. It usually contains about 35 per cent, of phos- 
phoric acid, but as its availability in the soil is slow it is 
used less now than formerly. Bones gathered on the 
Pampas of South America are burned and made into 
what is called bone ash, which may contain 35 per cent. 
of phosphoric acid. But the chief source of phosphorus 
of late years is the phosphatic rock found in South Caro- 
lina, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, and others of 
our Southern States. The rock from different sections 
varies in its percentage of phosphoric acid, that from 
Tennessee being generally the richest. In South Carolina 
it is dug from the deposits on the coast and is also dredged 
from the rivers. This rock is often ground to an impal- 
pable powder spoken of in our first chapter under the 
name of "Floats." Chemists formerly attached no value 
to this because of its insoluble state. But more recent 
experiments have shown that in the soil it does become 
gradually available, and its use is increasing because of 
its greater cheapness as compared with ready dissolved 
rocks, and also because of the fact that the rock dissolved 
in sulphuric acid has a tendency to rob the soil of lime 
carbonate, through the plant taking the phosphorus and 
releasing the sulphuric acid. This latter at once unites 



94 Practical Fanning 

with the Hme in the soil and makes the sulphate of lime 
or plaster, and in this way is apt to cause an acidity in the 
soil which is harmful to the prosperity of the microbes 
that Uve with clover, and hence harmful to the growing of 
clover. The notion that acid phosphate carries free sul- 
phuric acid is generally erroneous, for a well-made phos- 
phate has the acid completely neutralized. There is also 
a notion which the manufacturers of bone fertihzers have 
encouraged, that phosphoric acid from bones is better 
than that from the rocks. Phosphoric acid is always one 
and the same thing, no matter from what source it comes, 
and the only difference is in its solubihty. That in raw- 
bone is insoluble and also that in the pulverized rock. 
From bone it will become available more quickly than 
from pulverized rock, because the bone, if fine, decays 
more readily, but the most readily available form is in 
the dissolved rock or acid phosphate. 

Phosphorus, in the form of phosphoric acid, does not 
leach from the soil as the nitrates will, but is held there 
till called for by plants. 

Potash is the oxide of potassium, a metal- 

e ources j-^ element, and as we have seen, one of the 
of Potash 

essentials to plant growth. Formerly most 

of the potash used was derived from the ashes of hard 
woods, and these are still a valuable source not only of 
potash but of Hme, and to a more limited extent of phos- 
phoric acid. But the supply of ashes is totally insufficient 
for the needs of modem agriculture, and the discovery of 
potash salts in the salt mines of Germany was of the 
greatest importance to the farmer. This potash is found 
as a chloride in what is commonlv called the muriate of 



Plant Food in the Soil 95 

potash, and is also found as a sulphate and as a carbonate, 
in all of which forms it is readily used by plants. 

One of the most commonly used forms of the crude 
potash salt is what is known as kainit. Though the pot- 
ash in kainit is a sulphate of potash it is associated with so 
large a percentage of chlorine that its action is rather that 
of a chloride than of a sulphate, and for this reason has 
been found detrimental to some crops such as tobacco, 
for which only a pure sulphate should be used. More- 
over, the expense of freighting a crude salt like kainit, 
which has but about 12 per cent, of potash, is so great 
that it is not now so much used as the manufactured and 
concentrated form called the muriate of potash or chloride. 
In this concentrated form there is an average of 50 per 
cent, of actual potash. A very high grade may contain 
more than 50 per cent. 

The high-grade sulphate of potash is also a manufac- 
tured article which usually has a little more actual potash 
than the muriate and in a better form for crops like tobacco, 
Irish potatoes, and crops in which sugar is an important 
ingredient. Another refined article is what is known as 
the double manure salt or sulphate of potash and mag- 
nesia. It has not over one-half the amount of potash 
that is contained in the high-grade sulphate, and the pot- 
ash costs more in this form. In the same manner as with 
phosphoric acid, the soil will absorb and retain potash 
even to a greater extent than it will phosphoric acid, since 
it is largely left in the roots, while the phosphoric acid is 
concerned in the ripening of the grain. Still another 
source of potash, which has come into use of late years, 
is the waste stems of tobacco and the tobacco dust from 



96 Practical Farming 

the smoking-tobacco factories. These contain as much 
as 8 per cent, of potash and two and a half per cent, of 
nitrogen and a small percentage of phosphoric acid, and 
in many places near the factories they can be had at a 
price that pays well for their use. 



CHAPTER VI 

MANURES AND COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS 

THE term "manure" is generally understood to 
mean the manure obtained from domestic ani- 
mals. But in the consideration of manures we 
will not use the word in so limited a sense, for there are 
numerous materials of a manurial nature that are not 
artificial manufactures like the commercial fertilizers. 
The muck and peat from swamps, when properly piled 
and composted with lime and ashes, make a valuable 
manure, and the sewage from cities is frequently con- 
densed into what is known as sludge, which has a very 
considerable manurial value. Farmers who are located 
near the ocean can get a large supply of seaweed which 
is blown on the beaches in storms, and which has a very 
good manurial value in itself, but is also valuable when 
dried as a bedding material for domestic animals and an 
absorbent of the manure. We have already noted the 
manurial value of the ashes from hard woods, and it is 
important that all these should be carefully saved and 
kept from the weather on every farm. Coal ashes are 
commonly considered of no value. But we have found 
that they are quite valuable on heavy clay soils as a means 
for the improvement of its physical character. They are 
also very retentive of moisture and help in this way in the 
soil. The ashes of cotton-seed hulls are among the very 

97 



98 Practical Farming 

best sources of potash, but of late years they have been 

taken up mainly by the manufacturers of fertihzers and 

are no longer on the general market. In many sections 

there are deposits of marl of varying character. The 

greensand marl is of the greatest value, since it contains 

phosphoric acid and potash. The ordinary shell marl is 

valuable solely for the carbonate of lime it contains, and 

like lime in general, it improves the mechanical condition 

of the soil. Lime in any form is not to be considered as 

manure, however, but a reagent in bringing about changes 

in matters already in the soil, making them available. 

Since the keeping and feeding of live- 

arnyar stock is of vital importance in any system 

Manures ^ ■' ■' 

of improved agriculture, the proper saving 

and applying to the land of the droppings and urine of the 
stock, so that there shall be as little loss of its plant food 
as possible, is essential. The need for commercial fertil- 
izers has been largely brought about by the waste of the 
home manures during past years. And unfortunately this 
waste is still going on all over the country, while it can be 
very largely avoided by proper care. Careful experiments 
have shown that in many cases fully one-half of the ma- 
nurial value of the barnyard product is lost by improper 
fermentation and leaching. Professor Voorhees estimates 
that if but one-tenth part of the present waste of manure 
were avoided (and a larger percentage is avoidable) the 
total amount of constituents thus saved would be more 
than equivalent to the amounts of plant food now pur- 
chased in commercial fertihzers. 

When manure is thrown out from the stables in loose 
piles it begins at once to ferment, and its nitrogen flies 



Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 99 

off into the air in the form of the volatile carbonate of 
ammonia which every one can easily smell escaping from 
a manure heap. The heat engendered in the fermentation 
causes a rapid oxidation of the organic materials in the 
manure, and a loss of what would in the soil be making 
humus. All over the country we see this practice. The 
heaps in many places are thrown out under the stable 
eaves, and there is not only a loss from the fermentation 
but there is also a great waste through the rain-water 
falhng on the heap and washing out its soluble plant food. 
We have often seen drains made to carry off this manure- 
water down hill to some stream that carries it away forever 
from the farm. Every farmer should understand that the 
manure from his stock is one of the most valuable assets of 
the farm, and should use the utmost care in saving and 
applying it. The sooner the manurial accumulations can be 
got upon the land where they will feed crops, the better. 
On many farms it is perfectly possible to haul out the 
manure and spread it on the land as fast as it is made daily. 

On a farm where a good rotation of crops is practiced 
there can always be found a place at all seasons of the 
year where the manure can be spread and go to work 
feeding plant roots instead of wasting in the barnyard. 
In summer, after the clover is cut, the manure can be 
profitably spread on the stubble. Or it can be spread 
between the rows of com or cotton or any other crop 
that may be in process of cultivation. During the winter 
months it can be hauled and spread on the sod that should 
be ready to go into corn the next spring. 

But it is not always practicable to haul out the manure 
daily since there will come times when it is not practicable 



100 Practical Farming 

to haul on the wet land. How, then, shall we care for 
the manure that must be kept on hand for a time? Wher- 
ever it is possible the open barnyard should have a hard 
bottom. Where rocks are plenty it should be paved or 
macadamized to prevent the clay from working up under 
the tread of the cattle into mud. Then the barnyard 
should be well filled with straw or forest leaves several 
feet deep all over, so that whatever manure is made in the 
open yard may have some absorbent at hand. Covered 
barnyards are often advised, but unless there is extra care 
given to them the manure therein is apt to be damaged 
more than in the open yard with plenty of absorbents. 
In the stable the rule should be to have box stalls kept 
plentifully bedded. The animals tramping on the ma- 
nure will prevent fermentation and the manure can safely 
be left in these box stalls till it is convenient to haul it 
and spread it on the field. But after loosening it up in 
the stalls, haul it at once to the fields, for it will at once 
begin to ferment and lose value if piled. The box stall 
with abundant bedding is the safest place possible for 
keeping the manure till hauled out, and the rain will make 
the decay of what falls in the open yard better than if in 
a covered yard where it will heat and fire-fang. But as 
little as is practicable should be left in the open yard. 

Years ago, when the writer was carrying on a large 
stock farm, he had the barnyard macadamized and the 
manure hauled out daily, so that at all times one could 
walk in the yard without inconvenience. But the learner 
may ask, "Does not manure spread upon the surface of 
land left exposed lose a great deal?" There is little 
fermentation when thus spread, especially if torn up fine 



Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 101 

and spread evenly with a manure-spreader, a machine 
that should be on every farm; and it loses mainly only 
w^ater, while if piled up in the barnyard it loses immensely 
of that most valuable constituent, the nitrogen. Then, 
instead of the rain's washing out the plant food to run 
away from the barnyard, it is washed into the soil and 
the soil holds it there for the use of the crops. Even in 
cold climates, where the soil freezes hard, the manure 
spread in the fall and let lie till spring has given the best 
results in the crop. At the New Hampshire station an 
experiment was made of spreading manure on the surface 
in the fall and letting it lie all winter. On another piece 
the manure was plowed under at once in the fall. On a 
third piece the manure was spread in the spring, and then 
all three pieces were plowed for corn. The best corn was 
made on the plot where the manure lay on the surface 
all winter. 

Have as little manure as possible, then, in the open 
yard. Keep what is in the box stalls well tramped down 
and filled up with straw or leaves, and it can remain there 
unhurt till it is convenient to haul and spread at once. 
The urine from the animals is of more value, even, than 
the droppings, and an abundance of absorbing material 
is of importance to save this. If the stalls have a hard 
clay bottom do not put a wooden floor in them. If the 
soil is sandy and apt to leach, the floor should be made of 
broken rock grouted well with cement to prevent the loss 
of the hquid manure. Then, if it cannot leach away, 
and plenty of absorbents are used, the whole can be saved 
and make a far more valuable manure than if the liquids 
leached out. 



102 Practical Farming 

The manure from wcll-fecl animals is of far more value 
than that from ill-fed ones. In fact, cattle that are merely 
kept alive all winter on straw and corn shucks make a 
manure that has very little value as compared with that 
from animals that have been fed a well-balanced ration in 
which there is an abundance of the nitrogenous or protein 
foods. You cannot get something out of nothing, and 
while manure from straw-fed stock may have some value 
it will still be merely straw and of no more value than the 
materials the stock had to make it of. 

While freshly made manure may have little plant food 
that is at once available as compared with the concen- 
trated and soluble plant food in commercial fertilizers, it 
has an added value which the fertilizers lack. This is the 
large amount of organic vegetable matter associated with 
the manure. This, when buried in the soil, oxidizes 
slowly and adds the black humus to the soil, and not only 
releases plant food but has a further important effect in 
making the soil more retentive of moisture. Hence the 
longer continued effect of an appHcation of manure over 
one of readily available fertilizers. 

While keeping manures in piles always involves some 
loss, it is often desirable to partially rot it, especially for 
garden purposes. This can be best accomplished by 
pihng the manure in broad flat heaps with layers of dry 
muck or woods-earth, and chopping this down frequently 
and repiling in the same flat heaps. Then, if convenient 
to water, sprinkle it well all over, and make a trench 
around the compost pile to catch the leachings to be 
returned to the heap. But for the ordinary farm crops it 
is never economical to go to the heavy labor of composting 



Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 103 

the manure. It is far better to get it out as rapidly as 
possible, for it requires high-priced crops to pay for the 
labor of composting and the loss in the process. 

The Cornell station found that a ton of manure with 
the usual straw bedding was worth, when fresh, $2.30. 
After it had been exposed to the weather for six months 
it had lost ninety-eight cents of this value, or 46.6 per 
cent., nearly all of which would have been saved had it 
been spread on the land while fresh instead of being left 
in a loose heap. They also left 4,000 pounds of horse 
manure in a heap from April to September. Calculating 
from its content at first of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and 
potash, this manure was worth $2.80 per ton, while on 
the 2 2d of September it was found to have lost so much 
that it was worth but $1.06 for what weighed a ton at the 
start. They also left 10,000 pounds of cow manure 
exposed during the same period. At the end of the time 
the manure that was worth at the start $2.29 per ton had 
left of the ton only $1.60 worth of plant food. At the 
North Carolina station manure in three weeks showed a 
loss of 2.77 per cent, of its nitrogen. The Massachusetts 
station found that the leachings from a manure pile caused 
by rain had in them plant food worth $2.94 per ton 
although the leachings were 93 per cent, water. All the 
investigations go to show that keeping the manure in the 
yard can usually be done only at a great loss. When 
spread on the field these valuable leachings are absorbed 
by the soil, and as there is Httle fermentation there is less 
loss of ammonia there. The only way to keep manure, 
as we have said, without great loss is to keep it packed 
under the tread of stock in the stables. When once 



104 Practical Farming 

loosened up and the air admitted it should at once go to 
the field. In covered manure yards, where there are cat- 
tle enough to keep the manure trampled down as made, 
there will be less loss than in an uncovered yard, but 
manure thrown in heaps in a covered yard will lose more 
rapidly than in an open one. We have said that the 
urine of the domestic animals has a far higher manurial 
value than the solid excrement. Few farmers reahze this. 
Carefully made analyses show that the urine of the horse 
has plant food in it that makes it worth $5.37 per ton, 
while the solid excrement is worth by the same analyses 
$2.23 per ton. The urine of the cow is worth $4.37 per 
ton, and the solid dropping but $1.49 per ton. 

It has been estimated from carefully made experiments 
that the manure of one horse is worth annually, from the 
market price of the nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash 
it contains, $24.06 per year; that of the cow is worth 
$32.25 per year; that of a sheep is worth $2.29 per year, 
and that of a pig $3.06 per year. Where a large stock is 
kept, and half the value of the manure is lost by fermen- 
tation and leaching, we can readily see how much the 
farmer is losing, and why so many farms get poorer in- 
stead of richer. The average barnyard manure, as ascer- 
tained by a number of investigators, will contain plant 
food to the value of $2.20 per ton. In addition to the 
waste of manure in yard and stable there is commonly a 
great waste in its applications when spread by hand, some 
spots getting an excess in the large lumps while other 
spots are not covered. It is here that the value of the 
manure-spreader comes in, giving a more uniform coat 
and making the manure go much further than if spread 



Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 105 

by hand. As we have pointed out, one of the chief values 
of farm manure lies in the large amount of vegetable 
matter carried with it, which keeps up the humus supply- 
in the soil and makes it more mellow and easy to work, 
and more retentive of moisture for the sustenance of 
crops in dry weather. The commercial fertilizers have 
a far larger amount of plant food in a more readily avail- 
able form, but they do not furnish this organic decay. 
How we may make the fertilizers take the place of stable 
manure will be the subject of future treatment. 

While hme is essential to the life of plants, 

Lime and Its Yttosi of our cultivated soils have a large sup- 
Work in & r 
Agriculture P^Y ^^ them. It has been shown that a good 
wheat soil which will produce a crop of 
twenty-five bushels of wheat per acre, will contribute to 
the grain and straw about seven to eight pounds of hme 
per acre, while there will probably be in this acre of soil 
fully two tons of lime. And yet it has been found that 
appHcation of freshly water-slaked lime on this same 
soil will increase the wheat crop. We are therefore forced 
to beheve that it is something beside the lime itself which 
causes the increase, since the crop had already at com- 
mand a far larger supply than it could possibly use. 
Careful investigations have shown that, aside from a lim- 
ited use by plants as food direct, lime has a still greater 
influence as a reagent in the soil. 

Soils having a large amount of humus from the decay 
of organic matter may get into an acid condition which 
is unfavorable to the growth of many crops. This acid 
condition may be brought about also in soils which have 
not an excess of organic matter, through long continued 



106 Practical Farming 

cropping and annual dependence upon commercial fer- 
tilizers. But from whatever cause, it is found that this 
acidity is fatal to the growth of the soil bacteria that 
carry on the process of transforming organic nitrogen 
into nitrates. In the one case, while there is an abund- 
ance of the organic matter for their use, the acidity of the 
soil is detrimental to their growth. In the other case, 
they have simply been starved out by the lack of their 
food. The acidity in the soil is also fatal to the bacteria 
that live on the roots of clover and other legumes and 
enable them to acquire the free nitrogen from the air. In 
either case, then, lime is the remedy by which the alka- 
linity of the soil is restored. 

Lime promotes the nitrification of organic matter in 
the soil, not only through its effect in sweetening the soil 
and making conditions more favorable to the nitrifying 
bacteria, but also in another way. It is directly helpful 
to the bacteria; for these microscopic plants, having no 
green leaves, are not able, like plants with green leaves, 
to get carbon from the air; but they have the power that 
no green plant has, to get the carbon needed from a 
chemical combination. They get carbon from the car- 
bonate of lime in the soil, and in this way their growth 
and activity is greatly increased. It is found, therefore, 
that lime has an important bearing on the formation of 
nitrates in the soil, for the use of crops with green leaves 
which take nitrogen from the soil only in the form of a 
nitrate of Hme or potash or whatever base may be 
present in the soil. The bacteria on the legumes get 
what they need directly from their host plants, and 
though they are parasitic to this extent they return more 



Manures mid Commercial Fertilizers 107 

than they take and make what is called a symbiosis, or 
living together. 

Many of our heavy soils, particularly those in which 
the clay is the result of the decomposition of granite rocks 
containing large percentages of feldspar, have in them 
large amounts of potash in the form of an insoluble 
silicate. On these soils it has been found that the use of 
lime has the effect of releasing potash in such a shape 
that plant roots can get it. In some soils the first use of 
lime has such a marked effect from this releasing of pot- 
ash that farmers often jump to the conclusion that all 
they need to keep their land rich is to continue applying 
hme as a manure. But you understand by this time that 
the lime has only helped them to get at what was already 
in their soil and has depleted instead of enriched it. While 
the ordinary commercial fertihzers are merely the means for 
supplying plant food that may be deficient in the soil, lime is 
therefore to be regarded more as a stimulant. It has also a 
mechanical effect about which you have already learned. 

Lime and ashes, remember, should never be mixed with 
the farm manures, since the effect will be to form the vola- 
tile carbonate of ammonia, which will escape into the air, 
for wood ashes contain a large percentage of lime. Neither 
should lime be mixed with phosphatic fertilizers as it will 
tend to revert the phosphoric acid in them into a less avail- 
able form or condition. But there is another form of lime 
that can be used with benefit with the manure. This is 
the sulphate of lime commonly known as plaster. When 
this is mixed with the manure it tends to retain the ammo- 
nia in a less volatile form. Plaster also has the effect of 
releasing potash in the same way that lime does. 



108 Practical Farming 

Commercial We often hear men, who have seen the 

Fertilizers ^^^ results that have come through the 
injudicious use of commercial fertihzers, say that they 
are only stimulants, and that they do the soil harm. 
The fact is that the only real stimulants used are, as 
we have seen, hme and plaster. The commercial fertil- 
izers consist of the various plant foods that have been 
found from experience to be most commonly used up and 
made deficient in our old cultivated soil, in a readily 
available and concentrated form. They contain when 
complete fertihzer mixtures, all the plant foods that are 
contained in animal manures, but in a more concentrated 
and more readily available form, and hence are more 
quickly used by crops. 

The main difference between the commercial fertihzers 
and stable manure hes in the fact that the stable manure 
carries with it a large amount of organic matter that in- 
creases the humus content of the soil, and thus renders 
it more mellow and more retentive of moisture, while the 
commercial fertihzers only furnish readily available plant 
food. Therefore, if the use of commercial fertihzers is 
continued year after year, without any effort to restore 
and maintain the humus-making matter in the soil, the 
final result will be the starving out of the nitrifying bac- 
teria and the souring of the soil, while the absence of humus 
will cause a heav^ soil to run together after rains and bake 
hard and dry out quickly. Under such conditions hilly 
clay soils are made more inclined to wash. This result 
can be seen all over the South, where cotton has been 
grown year after year with simply an annual application 
of commercial fertihzers in small amount in connection 



Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 109 

with the scratch plowing of the Httle plow and one mule. 
Right under the shallow plowing the soil is hard and un- 
broken, and when the torrential rains that are common 
in the South come, the shallow broken soil gets into a 
creamy state, and having no vegetable matter in it to hold 
it, it runs down hill as the only way it can go, and a gully 
is soon formed, and the farmers find it necessary to make 
terraces and banks of various sorts to check the waste, 
when by a more thorough plowing and deepening of the 
soil there would be room to hold the water and check the 
washing, especially if vegetable growth had been turned 
into the soil. Then they jump to the conclusion that 
their land is getting poorer because the fertilizers applied 
in a scanty way are only stimulants, when the fault is in 
their management of the land and the way in which they 
use the fertilizers merely to squeeze a little more from the 
soil to sell away from it. They apply a httle fertihzer, 
generally in the hill or furrow, and the crop at once uses 
up the Httle supply of food and then draws further on 
what was in the soil, and the result is that the soil is left 
really poorer than before. 

I have told you of the various forms of plant food that 
are essential to plant life and which must be in the soil in 
order to make plants grow. Some of these, as I have 
shown, are naturally in such abundance in the soil that 
there is no need for applying them in fertihzers. But 
there are three of the elements that are exhausted from 
the soil in cultivation. These are nitrogen, phosphorus, 
and potassium. I have also explained that we do not 
use these as pure elements, but in various combinations; 
as nitrogen in nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, 



110 Practical Farming 

tankage, cotton-seed meal, etc.; phosphorus in phos- 
phate of Ume found in rocks and bones; and potassium 
in the potash salts and ashes in the form of potash. The 
object of commercial fertilizers is to furnish these things 
in a concentrated and readily available form. They are 
naturally associated with other matters, so that in a ton 
of fertilizer we find only certain percentages of the essen- 
tial plant foods. Then, in order to make a particularly 
low-priced article, the manufacturers often add what they 
call a "filler" of perfectly inert material, so that while an 
apparently low price is charged, the farmer is really paying 
full price for all that is of value in the article, and is pay- 
ing freight on the filler, which is of no value. Hence, in 
buying fertilizers it is always cheaper to buy a high- 
grade article than a low-grade. I know of one instance 
where a manufacturer of a low-grade fertilizer added to 
each ton 500 pounds of the burnt oxide of iron which was 
the result of his manufacture of sulphuric acid that was 
used in the dissolving of the phosphatic rock. This 
material was perfectly useless to the farmer if not actually 
harmful, and one-fourth of the freight on each ton was 
for this useless material, while he thought he was getting 
a cheap article. There is always an abundance of filler 
naturally associated with the materials that must be used 
in the manufacture of fertilizers, and no filler is needed 
whatever. 

The term "Complete Fertilizer" means that the article 
has in it a due percentage of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, 
and potash. Any two of these alone makes an incom- 
plete fertihzer, and, as we shall see, it is often advisable 
to use an incomplete mixture. Manufacturers of fer- 



Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 111 

tilizers often put the nitrogen in their fertilizers on the 
sacks as ammonia. This has become customary because 
the figures look larger, for ammonia is a hydride of nitro- 
gen and is only partly nitrogen, and nitrogen is the essen- 
tial thing we are after. You can find the actual amount 
of nitrogen in the article by multiplying the figures on the 
sack for ammonia by 0.8235. Thus, if the sack brand 
says that the mixture contains 3 per cent, of ammonia, 
this means that it has 2.47 per cent, of nitrogen. In some 
states the manufacturers of fertilizers print a great deal 
on their sacks to make farmers think there is more in the 
goods than there really is. For instance, the two follow- 
ing analyses were recently submitted for our opinion: 

First 

Nitrogen 2 to 3 per cent. 

Ammonia 3 to 4 per cent. 

Soluble Phosphoric Acid 3 to 10 per cent. 

Insoluble Phosphoric Acid 7 to 8 per cent. 

Potash 7 to 8 per cent. 

Second 

Ammonia 2 to 3 per cent. 

Soluble Phosphoric Acid .... 6 to 8 per cent. 
Insoluble Phosphoric Acid. .2 to 4 per cent. 
Equal to Bone Phosphate.. .4.36 to 8.73 per cent. 

Potash 2 to 3 per cent. 

Equal to Sulphate of Potash. 3. 7 to 5.55 per cent. 

All this simply means, in the first article, that it proba- 
bly contained 2 per cent, of nitrogen, 3 per cent, of soluble 
phosphoric acid, 7 per cent, of insoluble phosphoric acid, 
and 7 per cent, of potash, for when any sliding scale is 
printed on the sacks it is always safe to assume that the 



112 Practical Farming 

lowest figure is the true one, and the ammonia is put 
there simply to represent what the nitrogen would be as 
ammonia, and does not mean that there is both nitrogen 
and ammonia. 

In the second the ammonia is put down, and the phos- 
phoric acid, and "Bone Phosphate" is put there because 
that amount of phosphoric acid would be contained in 
the given amount of bone phosphate, and to make the 
farmer suppose that there is some bone in it, as farmers 
have an idea that phosphoric acid from bones is better 
than phosphoric acid from rock when both are the same 
identical thing. Then "Equal to Sulphate of Potash" 
simply means that such a percentage of sulphate of pot- 
ash would contain the potash stated, while the proba- 
bility is that the potash in the article came from the 
cheaper muriate of potash. 

In some states, notably in North CaroHna, the law re- 
quires that the manufacturer put on his sacks only the 
actual percentage of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash 
that the article contains, only this and nothing more, no 
sliding scale and no " equal to." It is well for the student 
to understand these things so as to be able to arrive at the 
exact value of the article submitted to him. Formerly, 
there was a great deal of fraud practiced in the manufac- 
ture of commercial fertilizers, but of late years the laws in 
most states have been made so strict that there is now 
little actual swindling in these, and the upright manu- 
facturers are as earnestly in favor of the enforcement of 
the laws as any one, since they, too, are protected from 
competition with worthless frauds. What is important 
for the farmer to know in regard to any complete fertilizer 



Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 113 

mixture is what it contains that is of value as plant food 
and not what the fancy-brand name may be. 

Different crops use nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and pot- 
ash in different amounts, some selecting nitrogen and 
phosphoric acid mainly, while others call for a large per- 
centage of potash in proportion to the other ingredients. 
Hence, while a certain ready-mixed fertiUzer may be well 
suited to one crop it may not be as well suited to another 
one. Then, too, the soil on one man's farm may be 
mainly deficient in nitrogen and phosphoric acid, while 
another farm near by may be especially deficient in pot- 
ash. Therefore the same fertilizer would not be the best 
for both, for it will, if it has a sufl&cient percentage of 
potash for the latter, make the first man buy what his soil 
does not particularly need. From these facts there has 
arisen the practice of home-mixing of fertihzers. 

Kjiowing that what we want is the proper 
°^^'™^"^^ percentage of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and 
potash for the various soils and crops, one 
need only buy the nitrogen he needs in the most accessible 
form, the phosphoric acid in like manner, and the potash 
also, and he can readily mix these with the aid of a shovel 
and a sand screen on a barn floor, can do it as well as it 
can be done in any factory, and can save a great deal of 
the cost. Nitrogen can usually be had more cheaply in 
nitrate of soda than in any other form. But in mixing a 
fertiUzer it will not do to use the nitrate of soda alone as a 
source of nitrate, for it is so readily dissolved that it must 
be used at once by the plants or is washed away. It is 
useful in the start, but we must have in addition to the 
nitrate some organic nitrogen like that contained in cotton- 



114 Practical Farming 

seed meal, lish scraj), or tankage, which will become avail- 
able during the growth of the crop and will thus keep up 
the feeding of the crop. Phosphoric acid can be gotten 
most cheaply in acid phosphate or the dissolved phosphatic 
rock, and potash can be had best and cheapest in the muri- 
ate of potash imported from Germany. Knowing, then, 
the percentage of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash 
contained in each of the materials, it is easy to make up 
a complete fertilizer suited to the various crops and soils. 

While one's soil needs can only be ascertained by tjic 
man who cultivates it, the chemist, however, can tell you 
what your soil contains, and you may have a soil that the 
chemical analysis shows contains large amounts of all 
the elements of plant food, and yet it may be a very 
unproductive soil by reason of the unavailability of these 
things. Actual experiments on the soil itself are necessary 
to determine what it particularly needs in the way of 
fertilizers. Professor Voorhees, in his work on Fertilizers, 
suggests that the farmer stake off ten plots, each one- 
twentieth of an acre, and gives the following plan: 

Plot I. Check. No Fertilizer 

Plot II. Nitrate of Soda 8 pounds. 

Plot III. Superphosphate (Acid Phosphate) . i6 pounds. 

Plot IV. Muriate of Potash 8 pounds. 

Plot V. Check. No FertiUzer 

Plot VI. Nitrate of Soda 20 pounds. 

Acid Phosphate 16 pounds. 

Plot VII. Nitrate of Soda 20 pounds. 

Muriate of Potash 8 pounds. 

Plot VIII. Acid Phosphate 40 pounds. 

Muriate of Potash 8 pounds. 

Plot IX. Nitrate of Soda 8 pounds. 

Muriate of Potash 8 pounds. 

Acid Phosphate 16 pounds. 

Plot X. No Fertilizer 



Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 115 

By studying the results on these plots for several years 
with the same treatment annually, the farmer can come 
very close to ascertaining the actual needs of his soil, and 
can determine w^hat he needs especially to buy and what 
he need not buy. If every farmer studied his soil in this 
way there would be an enormous saving in the purchase 
of fertilizers, and he could buy the materials containing 
what he needs and mix them in the proper proportions 
better than any manufacturer can do it for him. It will 
generally be found that phosphoric acid alone, though 
the soil may need it, will not have its due effect unless 
there is present naturally in the soil or is added to the 
fertilizer a due percentage of potash, and it will also be 
found that on a soil that is deficient in potash the potash 
apphed will not have its due effect unless a due percentage 
of phosphoric acid is present or is added. These two 
forms of plant food are so intimately associated in their 
work that both must be present for the best results. It is 
found in many soils that potash is present in sufficient 
amounts, while phosphoric acid is always deficient. 

Hence, on such soils it would be purely a waste to apply 
potash. But on many other soils, especially those of a 
sandy nature or the black and peaty soils of reclaimed 
swamps, it is found that both of these materials are 
deficient and must be suppHed. 

g , It has been long noticed by all cultivators 

Needed Nitro- of the soil that certain kinds of plants, such 
gen May Be as clover, COW peas, and other members of 
ad Free of ^^^ botanical family called leguminosae, or 
pod bearers, so called because they form 
their seeds in pods of various sizes from the minute 



116 Practical Farming 

pod of the clover to the large pod of the pea, did in 
some way add to the fertility of the soil on which they 
grew. Many supposed that they absorbed ammonia gas 
from the air through their leaves, for it was found that the 
content of nitrogen in the crop was greater than could 
be had from the soil. But in recent years this capacity 
of the leguminous plants for acquiring nitrogen has been 
the subject of close and long-continued study by leading 
biologists of Europe and America, and the process is now 
better imderstood. That is, we have found out the or- 
ganisms which enable the clover and peas to get nitrogen, 
though the exact way in which they do it is yet a matter 
for investigation, and there are several theories in regard 
to it. For the farmer in practice it is enough to know 
that they do get nitrogen for him. The air is made up of 
a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, as we have heretofore 
seen. The nitrogen is not in chemical combination with 
the oxygen, but is simply mixed with it to dilute the 
oxygen so that animals can breathe it. It is therefore 
termed free nitrogen. It was found that whenever there 
was an increase of nitrogen in the clover, peas, or other 
pod plants, there were always a number of little lumps or 
nodules on their roots, and when the plants had none of 
these nodules they failed to increase in nitrogen. It was, 
therefore, assumed that these nodules had something to 
do with the work, and scientists began to pay special 
attention to the structure of the nodules. Careful micro- 
scopic investigation revealed the fact that these nodules 
were inhabited by minute living plants of extremely small 
size. As they differed in form from any bacteria that 
had before been studied, they were at first termed Bac- 



Manures and Commercial Fertilizers 117 

teriods or forms similar to bacteria. But scientists have 
now agreed that they are true bacteria, and that they pre- 
sent merely an added form to the many already recog- 
nized. They are parasitic on the roots of the legumes; 
having no green matter in them they cannot get material 
for growth from the air as green plants do, and hence are 
obliged to live on what green plants have obtained. But 
though these minute plants draw their sustenance from 
the clover or other leguminous plants, their parasitism is 
not harmful, since they are the means of enabling the 
legumes to get the nitrogen in a combined form which 
they cannot use as a gas. I have said that the process by 
which they get the nitrogen into combination is still a 
matter of study and investigation. The most plausible 
theory is that these plants are of a nature similar to the 
yeast plants that cause fermentation in the liquids con- 
taining sugar, and that they are really nitric foments 
which oxidize or bring into chemical combination the free 
nitrogen of the air with oxygen. Now, when an element 
is combined with oxygen the result is the formation of 
an acid, and when nitrogen is oxidized the result is nitric 
acid. When nitric acid is formed in the soil it does not 
remain an acid, because the soil contains lime, potash, 
and other things of an alkaline nature that are bases for 
the nitric acid, and at once a neutral salt or nitrate is 
formed, which is at once taken up by the roots of the 
clover or other legumes and formed into organic nitro- 
gen, which will be finally carried through the nitrifying 
process in the soil when the clover decays, so that the fol- 
lowing crop gets the benefit of it. We have seen that all 
green plants use nitrogen from the soil only after it has 



118 Practical Farming 

got into the form of a nitrate. But when once in this 
form it is very soluble, and is rapidly leached from the 
soil. If, therefore, the nitrogen that the bacteria on the 
roots of legumes gather remains altogether in the soil in 
the form of a nitrate, it would be lost before the crops of 
the following season could get it. But being taken up 
by the roots at once, it is transformed into the living mat- 
ter of the plant and becomes organic nitrogen, which 
remains in the soil to decay and become transformed 
back again the following season through the agency of 
the soil bacteria which are engaged in the formation of 
nitrates from organic nitrogen. While it could not be 
carried over as a nitrate it can be as organic matter, and 
we can see the great wisdom of the Creator in this process 
of preservation. But these legume crops, which are in 
this way enabled to get and leave in the soil for the follow- 
ing crop the combined nitrogen in sufficient amount, are 
themselves among the greediest consumers of the phos- 
phoric acid and potash in the soil. Hence, we use acid 
phosphate and potash only on the leguminous crops to 
increase their growth, and through them to get the needed 
nitrogen. Since the nitrogen in a complete fertilizer mix- 
ture costs about as much as both the other ingredients, 
we can see the great saving that can be made by using 
these to get through the agency of clover or peas the 
needed nitrogen in greater abundance than we could get 
it in a complete fertilizer, while at the same time we get 
the organic decay in the soil as well as through the appli- 
cation of stable manure, and can get the most valuable 
forage for the feeding of stock and the increase of the 
home-made manures. 



CHAPTER VII 

LIFE IN THE SOIL 

THE casual observer is too apt to look upon the soil 
as merely a lifeless mass of matter, from which 
various chemicals can be dissolved to be taken 
up as food by the roots of plants. But our microscopes 
have shown us that a fertile soil, well supphed with humus 
from decayed organic matter, teems with Hfe, and may 
well be called a Uving soil. On the other hand, where 
long and careless cultivation has been pursued, and the 
soil has been continually exposed, summer after summer, 
to the sun (for the sun is one of the most powerful of 
agents in the destruction of microscopic life in the soil 
whether it be of a beneficial or harmful nature), and the 
humus has all been used up, so that the bacterial life has 
been starved out, the soil really may be termed dead. It 
has gotten to running together hard, and washes into 
gulHes with heavy rains, and though the chemical analy- 
sis may show that there still exists an abundance of plant 
food in the soil, it is locked up so that the plants cannot 
get it, and the soil has gotton into such an acid condition, 
that the life which filled it when new and fresh, can no 
longer thrive. 

The microscopic life in the soil, to which the soil owes 
much of its fertihty, consists mainly of the minute forms 
which have been given the general name of Bacteria. A 

119 



120 Practical Farming 

bacterium is the smallest of known vegetable forms. 
Many bacteria are barely within the reach of the highest 
powers of the microscope, and it may be that there are 
still smaller forms that play an important part in the 
changes wrought in the soil, but so small as to be undis- 
coverable. There are many sorts of these bacteria, some 
being disease-making forms, and others of a beneficial 
nature. But what we are here concerned with are the 
forms that exist in the soil and work for the farmer there, 
and also to arrive at a better understanding of the condi- 
tions in the soil necessary for the welfare of these minute 
plants whose work is always beneficial in agriculture. 
Many of them vary so little in appearance that some as- 
sume that all of them belong to one general species. But 
whether this is true or not they have become so altered in 
function that they are as really distinct as though of 
entirely different species. Certain forms that do certain 
work in the soil have been isolated and studied; the par- 
ticular part they play has been definitely determined; 
and it is evident that a study of these minute forms will 
help us more toward the understanding of the work that 
goes on in the soil, than any chemical analysis, which 
destroys life, can ever do. 

When any organic matter, either animal 

How Bacteria ^^ vegetable, is buried in the soil within 

Work in the , . ' , , . 

Soil reach of the atmosphere, the first thmg that 

takes place is what we call decay. This 

decay, or the breaking down of the original tissues, is 

carried on in the presence of oxygen and moisture, by 

milhons of these bacteria, whose special work is to reduce 

the organic matter to its original elements. All organic 



Life in the Soil 121 



matter contains nitrogen; and the decay carried on by 
the bacteria releases this as ammonia, which is a hydride 
of nitrogen. Then at once here are myriads of other 
forms of these minute plants which find their food in am- 
monia, and their oxidizing work carries it to the form of 
a nitrite, but no further. Then other forms take up the 
work, and the result of their growth and oxidizing influ- 
ence is nitric acid. When nitric acid is present in the soil 
it soon seeks a base, for there is always Hme or potash or 
some other base in the soil, and the acid becomes a salt, 
a nitrate. 

Now, it has already been shown that green plants never 
use nitrogen until it is in the form of a nitrate; and, that 
when it has gotten into this form, it is readily taken up 
by the roots of plants, and is so very soluble that if not 
soon taken up by plants, it is washed from the soil. The 
absorptive power of a good loamy soil is such that it will 
take and hold on to phosphorus or potassium and keep 
it till called for. But not so with the nitrogen, which is 
soon leached from the soil in the drainage. The ready 
availability of nitrogen as a nitrate is well shown in the 
use of the nitrate of soda as a fertilizer, and the speedy 
effect it has on plants, and also the way in which it is lost 
from the soil if not used at once. 

This process, by which the growth of bacteria in the soil 
changes the organic nitrogen into nitrates for the use of 
plants, is called nitrification. And, in order that it shall 
be carried on in the soil it is necessary that there shall be 
an abundance of food for the bacteria which do the work. 
We can see, then, the importance of humus-making 
material in the soil, and the loss that takes place from 



122 Practical Farming 

careless cultivation, through which it is used up, and none 
returned to keep the work going on. This is one of the 
most important reasons for the rotation of crops, in which 
there shall frequently come on the soil crops like clover 
or peas that will return organic matter to the soil, and 
thus keep up the work of the nitrifying bacteria, which 
can thrive only on decaying matter. 

But while all organic matter contains 
The Agency nitrogen which the plants have gotten from 

o ac ena ^j^^ ^^ji there is one class of plants which 
Nodules on ^ 

Legumes i^ their decay furnish nitrogen more plenti- 

fully, which they have gotten from the air, 
and which, therefore, is really an addition to the nitrogen 
of the soil. This class of plants is the one which botanists 
call the LeguminoscE, meaning plants that make their 
seed in legumes or pods. And here again we find the work 
of these minute plants we call bacteria. But they are 
bacteria that subsist on living and not on dead matter. 
It has long been known to farmers that in some way the 
growing of clover, cow peas and other legume plants, did 
help the productiveness of the soil. It was long thought 
that they had the power to get ammonia from the air 
through their leaves. But carefully conducted experi- 
ments soon proved that the leaves of the legumes had no 
such function. It was deemed reasonable to suppose 
that when there is ammoniacal gas in the air the leaves 
might absorb it, but it has never been proven that they 
do. The study of the legumes was taken up by scientific 
men and their growth accurately observed. It was soon 
found that when any legume did acquire more nitrogen 
than existed in the soil in which it was grown, there were 



Lije in the Soil 123 



always on the roots certain little knots or nodules; and 
it was also observed that when there were none of these 
nodules on the roots the legume plants did not increase 
in nitrogen any more than other plants. It was also found 
that, when there was a great store of nitrogen in the soil, 
the plants used this and formed no nodules. It was evi- 
dent, then, that in some way these nodules were the agents 
through which the nitrogen was acquired. Then scien- 
tists began the study of the nodules, and found that they 
were caused by parasitic bacteria which find a home on 
the legume roots, and through their growth cause the 
change in the tissues of the roots making the nodules. 
The bacteria draw their nourishment from the legumes 
in part, and hence are parasitic. But the parasitism has 
been shown not to be harmful; for the bacteria enable 
the legume to get from the air more than they take from 
the plant otherwise; and it thus becomes a sort of sym- 
biosis, or living together, which is mutually beneficial. 

In the first study of these bacteria, they were found to 
have so different a form from any other bacteria that they 
were called bacteroids, or forms similar to a bacterium. 
But it is now pretty well determined that they are true 
bacteria, altered in form by their peculiar work. In fact, 
it seems that they have been so altered that certain ones 
live only on certain legumes and on no other, having be- 
come specially adapted to certain host plants, so that we 
have clover bacteria, pea bacteria and bacteria that live on 
other legumes ; though it may be shown yet that any of them 
in time can accommodate themselves to different hosts. 

While any of the legumes may be made to thrive and 
grow on soil that abounds in abundant plant food, their 



124 Practical Farming 

peculiar work of getting nitrogen, which is a free gas 

in the air, and locating it in the form of organic matter, 

is always done through the agency of the bacteria that 

Hve on their roots, and these do their work best in a soil 

where there is not an over-abundance of nitrogen, which 

as one has said, makes them lazy, and interferes with the 

work of the bacteria. Therefore it has been found that, 

for the best results with the legumes, the soil must have 

in it an abundance of these parasitic bacteria. They are 

apt to be absent from a soil in which the particular legume 

sown has not before been contained. In such case it has 

been found necessary to inoculate the soil with the specific 

bacteria which Hve on the plant to be grown. 

There has been much talk recently about 

Methods of ^Yie wonderful "discovery" made in the De- 

Inoculating p » • i 

the Soil partment of Agriculture, of cultivatmg the 

bacteria in nutrient solutions, and drying 
them for distribution to farmers. There is nothing new 
in the artificial culture of bacteria in the laboratory, for 
it has been done for generations. The only new thing 
about the discovery is the method of distribution. It is 
well-known that these minute plants can be dried and 
retain their vitality for a long time; and, when placed in 
nutrient solutions, they may again become active and in- 
crease enormously and rapidly. The new cultures soon 
became known commercially under the name of "Nitro- 
cultures," and have been sold to farmers at $2 per culture, 
which cost perhaps three cents. These bacteria are sent 
out in dry cotton wool and with them some nutrient mate- 
rials, for the purpose of making a solution in which the 
bacteria are placed, and in which they at once thrive. 



Life in the Soil 125 



These solutions were to be used to sprinkle the seed down, 
and thus to convey the bacteria to the soil when the seed 
are sown. Some years ago a similar preparation was sent 
out from Germany under the name of "Nitragin," which 
was to be applied to the soil to increase the number of the 
nitrifying organisms concerned in the formation of nitrates 
from organic nitrogen. This nitragin was a complete 
failure, and no better results have so far been obtained 
from the nitro-cultures for the inoculation of the legumes. 
The artificially grown bacteria do not seem to adapt them- 
selves readily to the soil conditions, and the nitro-cultures 
will soon be relegated to the same disuse that has over- 
taken nitragin. 

How, then, shall we bring about the needed inoculation 
of the soil for the growth of the various legumes? The 
easiest way is to get some soil from a field where the par- 
ticular legumes have thriven and made nodules, and scatter 
this over the soil to be sown. This method has uniformly 
been successful. It has been found that soil, in which 
certain more or less related legumes have grown, will inoc- 
ulate the soil for others. The plant generally known as 
sweet clover, melilotus alba, which grows as a weed in 
nearly all parts of the United States, has been found to 
contain bacteria which will live on the roots of alfalfa. It 
has also been found that the more nearly related plant, 
burr clover, medicago denticulata, when sown in the 
rough burr-like seeds, will carry the bacteria of alfalfa 
with it; since alfalfa, medicago saliva, is a very near gen- 
eric relative. Then it has been found that the bacteria, 
which live on the roots of the garden pea, will also live on 
the roots of the vetch, and that crimson clover seed sown 



126 Practical Farming 

in the cliafif, will inoculate the soil for clover of any other 
species. In fact, the use of inoculated soil is now the 
general mode of introducing the bacteria to new localities. 
The Southern cow pea needs no inoculation in the South, 
where it has been grown for generations, and in a new 
locality the dust that always goes with the peas, will carry 
the inoculation. 

Soil in which there is an abundant supply 
Conditions of organic matter will always contain an 
^^ *°^ ., abundance of the nitrifying organisms, pro- 
in the Soil vided it is well drained and has not gotton 
into an acid condition. Acidity in the soil 
is destructive to the nitrifying organisms as well as to the 
symbiotic ones that live on the roots of legumes; and the 
failure of clover in many parts of the country is due more 
to acidity in the soil than to any other cause. The appH- 
cation of phosphoric acid, in the form of dissolved phos- 
phatic rock has been thought to be largely the cause of 
this acidity. Not from the acid used in the making of 
the acid phosphate direct, for it is rather a humic acidity; 
but because, when the phosphate is applied to the soil, the 
phosphorus is used by plants and the sulphuric acid used 
in dissolving the rock is set free and at once unites with the 
lime in the soil, making sulphate of lime, and thus rob- 
bing the soil of lime carbonate necessary to preserve its 
alkalinity. The cure for such a condition is of course 
lime carbonate. Lime not only sweetens an acid soil 
and renders it suitable for the bacterial life, but it directly 
promotes the growth of the bacteria. These minute 
plants have no green matter, and hence cannot get carbon 
from the air as green plants do; but it has been found 



Life in the Soil 127 



that they have the power which no green plant has, to get 
carbon from chemical combinations, and they can get 
carbon from lime carbonate. To preserve bacterial life 
in the soil, then, we need to have the soil in a feebly alka- 
line state, and hence, when growing the legume crops on 
the soil frequently in the rotation, we must avoid acid 
conditions by an occasional application of lime. 

^ . .„ . This brings us to the next branch of this 

Denitnfication , . . ^ .. . , . 

mvestigation. In soils rich in vegetable 

decay, there is often a serious loss of nitrogen through 
rapid oxidation and the consequent escape of ammoniacal 
gas into the atmosphere. The constant exposure of the 
soil, in the clean cultivation of cotton in the South and in 
single cropping in any part of the country, without the use 
of recuperative crops, is one of the greatest causes of this 
loss. Bulletin 53, of the Minnesota Station, shows how 
great the loss is in the constant cultivation of wheat year 
after year there. While a crop of wheat harvested re- 
moved but 24.5 pounds per acre, it was found that the 
actual loss of nitrogen from the soil was 171 pounds per 
acre. But when wheat was grown in a rotation, in which 
clover was used as a means for the restoration of the or- 
ganic matter, there was a great gain instead of loss. The 
same result has been shown in the constant clean cultiva- 
tion of cotton in the South, as well as in the same practice 
in many sections in the cultivation of tobacco. These 
natural losses are easily preventable by a proper rotation 
of crops. 

We have already pointed out the danger of great loss 
of nitrogen, through the improper handling of the ma- 
nures of the farm, by leaving them to ferment in piles and 



128 Practical Farming 

losing the volatile carbonate of ammonia, or by leaving 
the manure to leach under the eaves of the barn or on piles 
in the field. We have also pointed out that there is less 
loss when the manure is hauled and spread as fast as made. 
Another loss of nitrogen from the farm is the selling of 
crops having a high feeding and manurial value, such as 
legume hay, instead of getting its feeding value and saving 
its high manurial value, and selling such crops as have a 
higher market value, but a comparatively small manurial 
value. There are conditions under v^hich a farmer may 
sell forage crops profitably by exchanging them for a 
greater value in manure, but these conditions prevail only 
in localities near a high-priced market for hay and a 
plentiful and cheap supply of manure. As a rule, all 
forage and roughage of the farm should be fed on the 
land, and the manure carefully saved and returned; for, 
aside from its value as a carrier of plant food in an avail- 
able form, it is of equal importance as a means of keeping 
up the nitrification in the soil and preventing the rapid 
loss through denitrification. It is really a question whether 
this last function of farm-yard manure is not fully as im- 
portant as its use in supplying plant food direct. The 
importance of constantly replenishing the nitrogen in the 
soil is shown by the fact that, aside from the constant 
escape into the air through the too rapid oxidation of 
organic matter, it rapidly drains from the soil in the 
drainage water when it has gotten into the soluble form 
of a nitrate. This loss of nitrogen has been more pro- 
nounced in the South than elsewhere, by reason of the 
practice of leaving the cotton and com fields bare of 
vegetation in winter, and exposing the soil to the winter 



Life in the Soil 129 



rains in a section where there is far more rain than freez- 
ing in winter. A winter cover-crop becomes of special 
importance in the South, and is also important anywhere. 
This cover-crop must be a green winter-growing crop, 
capable of taking up and holding in the form of organic 
matter, the nitrates that would otherwise be washed from 
the soil and lost. We have no figures to show how great 
this loss is, but it has evidently been one of the most 
serious causes of the loss of nitrogen in Southern soils, 
where the oxidation of the organic matter in the soil has 
been promoted by constant exposure. In the case of the 
phosphates already in the soil, or applied to it in a soluble 
form, there is far less danger of loss, since the phosphoric 
acid, unused at once by plants, reverts in the soil to a less 
soluble form; and the absorptive character of the soil is 
such that it will retain its hold on the phosphoric acid and 
potash, till called for by plant roots; and the loss of phos- 
phates and potash is mainly through the crops carried 
off, and the young animals raised on the farm and sold; 
for the making of the bony frame of a growing animal is 
one of the chief sources of loss of phosphates from the 
soil. 

The fact that nitrogen, as a nitrate, is rapidly washed 
from the soil shows, too, the importance of having a supply 
in the form of organic decay; for when we apply nitrogen 
that is already a nitrate, as in the nitrate of soda, it must 
be used at once by plant roots; while the organic nitrogen 
is more slowly coming into use as the plants need it. 
Hence, the very soluble form of nitrogen in nitrate of soda 
should never be used except when the plants are in rapid 
growth, and then, not in excessive amounts. 



130 Practical Farming 

Micro- There is also a wide difference in the fer- 

organisms as ti^zinff value of the solid and liquid portions 
a Manurial ^ i r • i r ^i -^ 

Factor ^^ ^^^ manure of animals, so far as the nitro- 

gen is concerned. Carefully conducted ex- 
periments have shown that, as compared with nitrate 
of soda, the solid parts of the manure have an effec- 
tiveness of but lo per cent.; while the liquid part has 
an effectiveness of 90 per cent, as compared with the 
nitrate, which is very nearly equal to that of sulphate of 
ammonia. The nitrogen of the liquid portion of the 
manure is very rapidly converted into ammonia, and thus 
may rapidly escape into the air. It has also been shown 
that the effectiveness of the nitrogen in the solid materials 
of the manure is not increased by mixing with them the 
liquids, but that the conversion of the nitrogen in the 
urine into ammonia is hastened by the admixture of 
the soHd excrement and straw. The changes in manure 
are carried on by microscopic organisms, which multiply 
with inconceivable rapidity, and thus accomplish wonderful 
results. 

These micro-organisms or bacteria are plentiful in the 
manure as soon as it leaves the animal body, and it is be- 
lieved that many of them come from the stomachs of the 
animals along with the excrement. The air of the stables 
always swarms with them, and the latter furnishes myri- 
ads; and, since we can detect the smell of ammonia at 
once, it is evident that they are promptly at work. Some 
of these bacteria are denominated aerobic, since they 
require the oxygen of the air in order to live and grow; 
while others flourish only in the absence of air and are 
therefore termed anaerobic. Those that require air for 



Life in the Soil 131 



their work can be controlled by the exclusion of the air. 
Experiments are recorded which show that they are capa- 
ble of converting the nitrogen in urine completely into 
ammonia which escaped into the air in twenty-four 
hours, when air was freely admitted, while this escape 
of ammonia was almost entirely prevented by the exclu- 
sion of the air, though the nitrogen was still largely con- 
verted into ammonia. 

The same changes occurred in the solid excrement, but 
more slowly. This explains the value of keeping manure 
in box stalls under the feet of animals that pack it down, 
and thus keep the air excluded. We have heretofore 
shown that this is one of the best means for preventing 
loss from the manure. How rapidly these micro-organ- 
isms work, is well shown by the rapidity with which this 
packed manure heats and loses nitrogen when thrown 
out in heaps and exposed to the air. Maerker, an emi- 
nent German investigator, has found that the nitrogen, 
in deep, stall-fed sheep manure, compared favorably with 
that of sulphate of ammonia and nitrate of soda; while 
ordinary barnyard manure, which contained denitrifying 
organisms from previous bad treatment, either did not 
give good results, or actually lowered the yield. 

Kainit has been found to be effective in checking the 
formation of ammonia and superphosphate in preventing 
its escape; and they also add valuable constituents to the 
manure heap. While caustic lime will, if applied to fer- 
menting manure, drive off the ammonia, it has been found 
that lime, applied to perfectly fresh manure, will not cause 
this loss, and that the loss will be very small. But so 
quickly does the work of the organisms begin, that, while 



132 Practical Farming 

it will prevent denitrification in perfectly fresh manure, it 
is practically impossible to use it effectively because of the 
rapid fermentation. Lime is also not advised, because 
it tends to convert the available nitrogen of the manure 
into insoluble and less available forms, though it will 
destroy the denitrifying organisms. When the organic 
matter is in the soil, the application of lime, as we have 
before shown, will hasten its nitrification. The micro- 
organisms that denitrify manures can be destroyed by the 
bi-sulphide of carbon, but this is too expensive an article 
to be devoted to this purpose. 

A recent official pubhcation says: "One point, which 
has been clearly brought out by recent investigation is 
that the addition of straw may very decidedly reduce the 
fertilizing value of the manure, the injurious effect being 
the greater the larger the amount of straw used. This is 
explained by the fact that straw contains organisms which 
convert the available nitrogen in manures, and, in the 
soil, into forms which the plant cannot utiHze." All this 
we regard as pure nonsense. Of course, when a large 
amount of straw is used the actual excrement bears a 
smaller proportion to the whole; but the value of the 
straw is in its humus-making nature and the nitrogen will, 
without doubt, eventually be brought into use in the soil. 
Reducing manures to their immediately available plant food 
value is no way to measure their permanent effectiveness. 

We would sum up briefly the whole mat- 
Summary ^ •' 

ter of nitrification and the retention of nitro- 
gen, for the use of plants, as the work of micro-organisms 
in the soil, and in the manures. Those in the soil are 
engaged actively in the change of organic matter into 



Life in the Soil 133 



nitrates; some, in the maniures before application, are to 
be guarded against as denitrifying agents; and that an 
abundance of vegetable matter mixed in farm manures is 
of final benefit to the soil through the furnishing of food 
for the beneficial organisms that bring about its decay 
and the hberation of its nitrogen in the readily available 
form of nitrates. It is also true that the more rapidly 
manure is spread on the soil after being made, the better 
for the crops, and the more it vi^ill aid in keeping up bac- 
terial hfe in the soil. Therefore, do not be afraid of straw 
or leaves or any bedding material, except sawdust and 
shavings which, through their acidity and slowness of 
decay may, to some extent, be harmful. But, as a rule, 
get with the manure all the good vegetable matter you can, 
and get it out on the land, where leaching will meet plant 
roots ready to absorb it. 



CHAPTER VIII 

TILLAGE AND ITS PURPOSES 

DEEP breaking of the soil is necessary for the full 
I development and extension of the roots of plants 
in the soil. Those who have never investigated 
the great extension of the roots of our cultivated plants 
can hardly realize how widely they ramble under favorable 
conditions, or how great the need is for this extension, if 
the best results are to be had in the crop. 

Deep breaking admits the air to the roots, and air, with 
its oxygen, is essential to plant growth in the soil. Unless 
the soil is permeated by the oxygen there can be no activity 
in the roots of plants. Anything that shuts out the air 
from the soil checks plant growth. 

Standing water in the soil shuts out air 

Moisture ^^^ prevents the growth of our upland 

Needed for ° ^ 

Growth plants, but moisture adhering to every soil 

particle is necessary. Few realize the great 

amount of water that our growing crops take from the 

soil. Professor King, in his work on the soil, shows that 

an acre of corn, planted three feet eight inches apart each 

way and with four stalks in a hill, will withdraw from 

the soil in thirteen days 244 tons of water, and that, 

too, from a soil so dry that no amount of pressure could 

squeeze out a drop of water from it. Hence a very wide 

extension of the roots is needed to do this work so 

134 



Tillage and Its Purposes 135 

rapidly, since the only part of the roots engaged in the 
absorption of food from the soil is the narrow zone of 
root hairs just back of the advancing tip of each rootlet. 
In a well-developed corn field, which has been properly 
plowed and properly tilled afterward, the whole soil is a 
complete net work of branching rootlets, each with its 
penetrating root cap and its zone of root hairs. The 
roots from opposite rows meet and cross each other till 
hardly an inch of soil is left unoccupied. This also means 
that an extreme fining of the surface soil is needed, for 
as the plants develop the roots tend more and more to 
seek the upper layers of the soil and demand a very 
permeable material for their minutely divided rootlets, 
which cannot penetrate hard lumps. 

The fining of the surface soil also favors 

Retention of the rootlets by retaining the needed moisture 

Moisture j.- j^^ where they are rambling. A surface of 

Favored by , « , , , i i 

he Fining of loosely aggregated clods exposes too much 

the Surface surface to the air, and dries out rapidly, 
while the finely pulverized soil acts as a 
blanket over the soil to check the evaporation of the 
moisture arising from below by capillary attraction, and 
to hold it near the surface where the roots can get it. 

While deep breaking is advantageous in enabling the 
oxygen to penetrate the soil, the subsequent tillage should 
always be shallow. As we have shown, the roots, as the 
crop approaches maturity, tend more and more to branch 
near the surface, and deep cultivation not only damages 
the crop by the breaking of the roots, but it turns the soil 
up to dry out rapidly instead of keeping the shallow 
blanket of fine soil to act as a check to evaporation. Both 



136 Practical Farming 

of these evils occur when the farmer uses a plow in the 
final cultivation of the corn crop to throw up a ridge of 
earth to the rows of corn, which is not only not needed 
there, but, by being removed from the middle of the rows 
where the roots are feeding, the soil is dried out, and even 
the roots which the plow failed to cut are destroyed by 
the drying of the soil. 

Conditions There are three conditions needed in the 

Needed in the soil in order that any plant may thrive or 
Soil for Plant any seed germinate. These are, first, the 
presence of moisture in due amount but not 
in excess; second, the presence of the oxygen of the air, 
and third, the presence of the proper temperature suited 
to the plants cultivated. If any one of these is entirely 
lacking no plant can grow, and a deficiency of any one 
leads to a feeble growth. 

Another reason for shallow cultivation of the soil is the 
fact that it makes the soil warmer. It has been found 
that a soil cultivated but one and a half inches deep was 
much warmer than when it was cultivated three inches 
deep. This was the case even to a depth of three feet. 
Hence, the keeping of the shallow blanket of fine soil on 
the surface enables us to retain heat as well as moisture. 
Since the roots of our upland plants penetrate deeply into 
the soil, it is necessary that the air shall penetrate deeply. 
And there is another important reason for the deep loosen- 
ing of the soil. The presence of oxygen is not only essen- 
tial to the activity of the plant roots, but the bacteria which 
are engaged in the process of releasing nitrogen from 
organic matter in the soil, and transforming it into nitrates 
so that green leaved plants can use it, thrive only in the 



Tillage and Its Purposes 137 

presence of abundant supplies of oxygen. Shut out the 

oxygen and these bacteria cannot Hve, but other forms 

that are engaged in denitrifying the soil in which they 

live, thrive only in the absence of oxygen, and then get in 

their harmful work. 

These bacteria which carry on the work 

^ ^^® in the soil called nitrification, are among 

Promotes ° 

Nitrification the most important aids to the farmer. 

The organic decay or humus in the soil 
contains nitrogen. But our cultivated plants, as we have 
shown heretofore, cannot use nitrogen until it is in the 
very soluble form of a nitrate. The nitrifying bacteria 
in the presence of oxygen and a proper temperature take 
the ammonia of the organic matter and transform it into 
nitrites, and then another form feeds on these nitrites, 
adding more oxygen till nitric acid is the result. Then 
when nitric acid is present in the soil it at once combines 
with whatever base may be at hand, either lime or potash 
usually, and a nitrate is formed which plant roots can use. 
Hence, one of the most important objects in tillage is to 
promote the growth of these nitrifying organisms through 
an abundant supply of oxygen, and at the same time pre- 
vent the growth of the denitrifying organisms that thrive 
only where oxygen is lacking. 

. The complete pulverization of very re- 

Soil Promotes fractory minerals, thus enabling the water 
the Solution and carbon dioxide to act upon every par- 

of Plant ^jj,|g ^-^Yi dissolve from them matters other- 

Food , . . 

wise insoluble. Feldspar, for mstance, is 

rich in potash, but is very insoluble. But it has been 

found that when it is finely pulverized and digested a week 



138 Practical Farming 

in water, from one third of i per cent, to i per cent. 
was dissolved in the water. This means that if there was 
an acre a foot deep of this finely pulverized material, 
10,000 pounds of plant food otherwise unavailable would 
become soluble in a week. 

What this would mean can be better understood when 
we reflect that in applying fifteen tons of stable manure 
to an acre we furnish only 150 pounds of potash and 140 
pounds of phosphoric acid. The more we grind the soil, 
then, the more it will yield up to us its store of plant food. 

Water passes more readily from a coarse to a fine layer 
of soil. Hence, there is an added advantage in the fining 
of the surface soil, while allowing the deeply broken soil 
below to remain undisturbed to bring up moisture from 
below to keep the supply good near the surface. 

To sum up then: pulverization of the soil not only 
favors the root development and the penetration of the 
air into the soil, but it improves the moisture and other 
physical conditions, promotes weathering and disintegra- 
tion, and thus releases plant food, and also supplies 
favorable conditions for the growth of the nitrifying 
organisms for which oxygen is needed, and discourages 
the growth of the denitrifying organisms which do not 
thrive in presence of oxygen. 

Weed destruction, or what is better, weed 
Weed prevention, is rather an incident in tillage 

„ . than an object. Proper tillage, sufiiciently 

Incident of frequent, will certainly prevent the growth 
Tillage of weeds. Weed-kiUing should never have 

to be done in a cultivated crop. The pri- 
mary object of tillage is to produce the conditions in the 



Tillage and Its Purposes 139 

soil most favorable to the growth of the crops cultivated, 
and if this is properly done there can be no weed growth 
provided the cultivation is done as rapidly and frequently 
as it should be. Of course there may come times when 
for frequent rains, the weed growth will get the start of 
the cultivator, and heavier tillage will be needed to destroy 
the growth, but these occasions will always be the excep- 
tion with the careful and methodical farmer. 

For the breaking of the ground the plow 

'^^^ in some form is always needed. The evolu- 

Implements . r ^ ^ i i i c ^ 

for Tillage ^^^'^ ^^ ^"^ modem plow has been one of the 
greatest in agricultural implements. In 
general form it may be said that all turning plows are 
aUke in having point, share, land-side and moldboard. 
But all these differ in some- respects in form with different 
makers, and they vary also a great deal in their ease of 
draft. For general turning of sod land, the modern sulky 
plow on which the plowman rides, is the best development 
of the turning plow. 

Formerly, and still in some parts of the country, much 
use was made of the shovel plow, which simply tears up 
the ground without turning the furrows. A modification 
of the shovel plow is the bull-tongue still used to some 
extent in the South. It is the cause of much of the waste 
of the Southern hillsides which were scratched with it 
while the clay below was left hard, and when the deluges 
of rain that are common in the South come, the shallow 
loose surface gets into a creamy state and must run down 
hill and cause a gully to start, all of which could have been 
prevented by deeper plowing. 

In recent years the disk plow has been invented and 



140 Practical Farming 

put on the market in various forms. In this plow the 
turning is done by a rolHng disk of steel set diagonally to 
the Hne of draft. As yet there is no prospect that this 
style of plow will entirely supersede the moldboard plow, 
since it has not yet been adapted to the turning of a sod 
nor the plowing of land that is quite soft. But where the 
soil is too dry and hard for the moldboard plow to be used 
at all, the disk, with a strong team, will break it since, 
unlike the moldboard plow it has no tendency to jump out 
of the furrow. So, at present it seems that the main use 
of the disk plow is to enable the farmer to plow when he 
otherwise could not do so because of dry weather. 

Modern farm implement makers are getting more and 
more to providing all tillage implements with seats so 
that the workman can ride, and thus reheve the farmer 
of a great deal of the hardest work on the farm, following 
the plow and cultivator. The two-horse cultivators are a 
great advance on the old single-horse cultivator, not only 
because the operator can ride, but because one man can 
do the work that required two men with the one-horse 
cultivator, and thus a great saving of labor is made, and 
the work is better done. 

The disk principle has also been introduced into the 
riding cultivator, and for many purposes that disks are 
an advantage, as they pull out no sod or trash that may 
be in the ground. But cultivators with small shovel teeth 
are still the favorites with most farmers. The fact that 
shallow and level cultivation is an advantage in the reten- 
tion of moisture in the soil and as a preventive of damage 
to the roots, has led to the implement termed the weeder, 
similar in general form to a hay rake but with flattened 



Tillage and Its Purposes 141 

teeth. This implement takes a wide space of soil and 
during the earlier stages of the crop can be used to great 
advantage since its small teeth can work right up to and 
among the growing plants and thus keep down the young 
starting weeds. By taking care to have corn rows run 
very straight, the weeder can be used through the whole 
cultivation of the crop by taking out the teeth that strike 
two rows and thus enabhng the operator to cultivate the 
whole of one row and the halves of the others at once pass- 
ing, and by thus rapidly going over the ground the work 
can be repeated more frequently, and when rains are fre- 
quent advantage can be taken of the short intervals to keep 
the forming crust broken until the corn gets so tall that the 
final cultivation must be done with the single cultivator. 

No matter what sort of a plow is used 
Harrows and ;, . • r ^ i ^ ^ 

Harrowing ^^ preparation of a proper seed bed de- 
mands that the upper surface of the soil be 
made fine. For this purpose we use a harrow. Harrows 
are made in a legion of forms, every one of which has some 
advantages for special work. Most of the older forms 
of harrows depended for the pulverization of the soil on 
an array of projecting spikes in a heavy V-shaped frame. 
In the further development of the spike harrow the teeth 
were made of steel instead of iron and of a smaller size, 
and the frame is so contrived that the teeth can be made 
to slant backward making what is known as the smooth- 
ing harrow, an implement of much value for the final 
smoothing of the surface or the breaking of a forming 
crust before the plants are above the ground, or for cov- 
ering grass and clover seed. 
The various forms in which the spike harrow has been 



142 Practical Farming 

fashioned are almost innumerable, but of late years the 
attention of inventors has been toward other forms not 
dependent on straight spikes for their work. One of the 
best of the modern harrows is the spring-tooth harrow, 
in which the teeth are curved steel springs with pointed 
teeth. These do excellent work in ground where there 
is no sod or rough matter turned under, as they tear 
and cultivate the soil very thoroughly. 

Then came the harrow known as the Acme, which con- 
sists of a long row of small moldboards attached to a com- 
mon bar, which merely turn and pulverize the surface 
without dragging anything out. This is an excellent 
implement for fining the surface over a buried sod. 

But for deeper cutting the disk principle was adapted 
to the harrow, and the disk harrow came into use. The 
deep cutting of the disks gave them an advantage, while 
they, too, have no tendency to pull out buried trash. 
Finally a modification of the disk came into use, known 
as the cutaway, from the fact that the outer perimeter of 
the disks are cut into teeth. This form cuts still deeper 
than the disk and both are the last development of soil- 
preparing implements. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE WASHING OF SOILS AND METHODS OF PREVENTING 
THIS LOSS 

ONE of the chief sources of loss in hilly soils, es- 
pecially the hill lands of the South, is the wash- 
ing of the surface soil during heavy rains. The 
upland soils of the South, owing to their peculiar compo- 
sition, and the [imprudent practice of keeping them in 
clean culture in cotton year after year, aided by the shal- 
low plowing which has been the rule, have been wasted 
and washed into gullies until in some places the land is 
utterly irreclaimable. Efforts bave been made to check 
this washing by running a system of horizontal banks 
with narrow ditches above them to carry off the water 
slowly. While this for a time checks the downward 
rush of the water the result finally is that the hillside 
ditches gradually become gullies. In North CaroHna a 
better system has been adopted to a great extent. They 
make broad banks around the contour of the hills with 
plow and horse scoop and give these a very shght fall, 
with a broad leveled space on the upper side to cause the 
water to spread out and move slowly down the slope. 
The broad banks are cultivated just as the rest of the land, 
and not allowed to grow up in grass and weeds like the old 
hillside ditch banks. 

143 



144 Practical Farming 

But even these are not always effective, for at times 
there will come a flood of rain large enough to swell up 
and overflow the banks and the result is a worse wash 
than if there was no bank there, because of the gathered 
head of water. The real cure for the trouble can only be 
made by a total abandonment of the methods of culture 
which are responsible for the washing, the shallow plowing 
and the constant working of the land in clean hoed crops. 
When these hills were first cleared from the forest the 
land did not wash because it was full of humus and the 
fibrous matter from tree roots. But year after year only 
a few inches of the loose surface soil were stirred, the humus 
was used up, and the soil became more compact and in- 
clined to run together and bake, and when the shallow- 
plowed surface got filled with water and was reduced to 
a creamy condition, while the clay below remained per- 
fectly hard, it naturally ran down the hill carrying off all 
the plowed surface and leaving the hard red clay exposed 
to the action of the rain and the frosts of winter, and every 
rain took off all that the frost had heaved up, and a gall 
and gully were formed. 

It has been seen that the so-called terracing 

How Shall Qf ^Yi^ Southern hills has been but a partial 

We Prevent . . 

this Washing remedy, and that in spite of the banks the 

soil continues to wash; it is evident that the 
only real cure is to return the land to the conditions that 
existed when it was freshly cleared, and to plow the land 
so deeply that it will retain a great deal more water with- 
out running. Crop rotation, then, in which the legumes 
come frequently on the land as a means for the restoration 
of the humus, accompanied by deep plowing and subsoil- 



The Washing of Soils 145 

ing, will do more to check washing, not only in the South- 
ern uplands, but in hill soils anywhere than terracing. 
The Southern farmers have long since learned that it will 
not do to plow straight furrows up hill and down, but 
in many sections further North, where the soil does not 
tend to wash so badly as the Southern soils, this practice 
of straight furrows on hill lands is working serious 
damage. In the South the furrows invariably follow the 
contour of the hills, and it would be wise for farmers in 
all hill lands to adopt this plan, not only because of its 
lessening the tendency to wash, but because it is easier 
for the team than to plow straight up a hill. 

The red clay soils of the Southern uplands show hardly 
a trace of difference in color between the surface soil and 
the subsoil, and in fact the red clay of these uplands is all 
of uniform character all the way down to the fast rock, 
and will all become good arable soil if exposed to the 
action of the air and frost. In the improvement of these 
hills that have been only scratched over for a century or 
more the turning must be gradual and not too much of 
the unused soil exposed at once. But this does not pre- 
vent at once a deep loosening of the soil, for below where 
any good plow should run the subsoil can be loosened by 
a subsoil plow following in the same furrow. With the 
soil loosened to a depth of fifteen to eighteen inches it 
will take a complete cloudburst to start the soil to running 
down hill, and when to this deep breaking we add the 
burying of the roots of peas or clover we still further check 
the tendency to wash. Then, if in every hoed crop like 
cotton or corn there is sown some crop as a winter cover, 
crimson clover or rye, so that there will be a cover of green 



146 Practical Farming 

vegetation on the surface all winter to prevent the leaching 
away of plant food and the winter washing of a bare soil, 
and furnishing also vegetable matter to turn under in the 
spring, we increase the fibrous material in the soil and still 
further check the tendency to wash. The one-horse plow 
and the clean and constant cultivation in cotton have been 
the cause of the bad gullies in the Southern hills, and the 
puny attempts to dam back the water have done little 
good. So long as the continuous cultivation of the land 
is practiced and the one-horse plow is the means for break- 
ing the land for crops, the washing will never be checked, 
no matter how elaborate the terracing may be made. 

Deep breaking, subsoiling and rotative cropping, with 
a cover crop always on the land in winter, will do far more 
to check the washing of the Southern hills than all the 
terraces that were ever constructed. Then, when the land 
is in clean crop, the common practice has been not only 
to break the land on the contour of the hill, but the rows 
are laid off in the same way, which is all right so far. 
But the practice followed in the cultivation of the crop has 
of itself led to a great deal of the washing. Instead of 
working the soil shallowly after the planting of the crop, 
and keeping it as level as possible, the practice has been to 
hill up the soil to the rows of cotton or corn, and when the 
rains descend the furrows thus formed soon get filled. 
The upper ones overflow and those further down the hill 
continue to gather head and overflow till a torrent is 
formed rushing down and a gully starts. If the crops 
had been worked shallowly and level there would have 
been no hollows to gather a head of water, but it would 
have been spread out and largely sunk in the soil, and if 



The Washing of Soils 147 

deep plowing had been practiced there would never be 
any great gathering of water on the surface to rush down 
in one torrent. Then, added to the deep breaking and 
the proper rotation and cover crops we need the shallow 
and level cultivation to prevent a head of water gathering. 
We need the shallow cultivation, too, to preserve the mois- 
ture in the soil by checking the evaporation at the surface 
and not turning up the moist soil below to be dried out. 

But there is another sort of washing that is going on in 
all parts of the country where there are hills and running 
streams. The banks of the streams have been completely 
cleared and cultivated to the margin, and when the freshets 
come the banks cave in and the soil is washed away to 
choke the rivers. After every rain storm one can see the 
result of this washing in the soil-burdened waters that go 
flowing to the great rivers and choking the harbors. This 
has been the result of the clearing of the lowlands right to 
the borders of the streams instead of leaving a bordering 
of small trees and shrubs to bind the banks. Streams in 
every part of the country are thus wasting the soil, most 
of which could be prevented by setting willow cuttings 
along the banks, and keeping the tops cut back annually 
to prevent too tall a growth to shade adjoining crops. 



CHAPTER X 

CROP ROTATION — ITS PURPOSE AND PRACTICE 

IT has been found that where the same crop is grown 
on the land year after year, no matter how well sup- 
l)lied with fertilizers, the yield cannot be kept up 
prolitably, and often the soil refuses to produce that crop 
at all. 

No crop is ever entirely removed from the soil. The 
roots at least remain there to decay, and it seems that 
plants soon get tired of feeding on their own decay. Some 
have supposed that there are deleterious excreta thrown 
off by the growing roots of plants, and that these are poi- 
sonous to that particular plant while not so to plants of a 
different character. But no true excretory process has 
ever yet been discovered in plant life, though it is believed 
that the roots do exhale carbon dioxide in the soil. But 
tliis would only tend to render the insoluble plant food in 
the soil more available, and would not be at all poisonous 
to plants. 

In the experiments at Rothamsted, England, conducted 
by Lawes and Gilbert, they cultivated Irish potatoes on a 
piece of land continuously for a long series of years until it 
finally refused to produce any potatoes. But when it was 
sown to barley it made a crop of seventy-five bushels per 
acre. The cause of this probably was that plants select 
plant food from the soil dilTerently. Irish potatoes call 

148 



Crop Rotation — Its Purpose and Practice 149 

for a large percentage of potash, and in the series of years 
they had been grown on the land they had so reduced the 
content of potash in it that potatoes could no longer be 
made, but there was still enough left to make a fine crop 
of barley, the food requirements of which are very different. 
In our native forests we find that there is usually a very 
great diversity of plants, and a great difference in their 
root development. The pine tree sends a deep tap root 
into the soil and gets food below where the spreading roots 
of the oak feed, and it takes food of a different composition 
from the oak, and the leaves of all the trees fall and decay 
and furnish each with what it wants, so that in the forest 
there is really a rotation of crops going on all the time. 

We have seen that humus, or organic de- 
Economical ^ jg ^ ^^.j-y important constituent in a 
A /jvfl utflcrcs of 
a Rotation of fertile soil. Long clean cultivation of the 

Crops land in a hoed crop exposes the soil to the 

sun in summer and the winter rains till 
the humus is used up and the plant food is leached away 
from the soil. This can readily be seen in the cotton belt 
of the South, where this continuous clean cultivation has 
been the rule for many years until the land refuses to give 
a fair crop and only makes a moderate one by the use of 
commercial fertilizers. 

This has been the result of an impression that cotton 
was the only crop it paid the farmers to grow, and that 
they could buy corn and hay cheaper than they could grow 
it. But they overlooked the fact that the crops that should 
properly form their rotation would, if properly arranged, 
tend continually to increase the productiveness of the 
land in cotton. 



IT)!) Practical Fdrniiiif; 

It has been well said that sand and clay form but the 
skeleton of a soil, and that humus, or organic decay, is its 
life. A rotation, then, in which crops of clover or peas 
are grown, tends through these, and their feeding to live 
stock, to restore to the soil the humus which long clean 
culture has used up. If the humus furnislied no plant 
food it would increase the cajjacity of the soil to produce 
the money crop through the improvement it makes in the 
physical condition of the soil, making it more mellow and 
more easily cultivated, less liable to crust and bake hard, 
and also retaining water better. But the humus also does 
furnish i)lant food through the agency of the bacteria that 
find their home in it and transform the nitrogen contained 
in the organic matter into nitrates that plants can feed 
upon. 

While, directly, the auxilhary crops may not return as 
much cash as the cotton crop, their indirect elTect on the 
cotton crop will well warrant the rotation. The same is 
true of any other money croj) grown in this country. The 
wheat lands of the Northwest have deteriorated from their 
former productiveness, while the old lands in Maryland 
and other parts of the winter wheat growing sections 
have, through a proper rotation of cro]), greatly increased 
in the production of wheat, till in some sections where 
formerly they made ten to fifteen bushels per acre, the 
tlioughtful and progressive farmers now average forty 
bushels per acre. 

In the South there are also a few farmers who have 
realized the value of a proper rotation of crops, and have 
grown legumes for forage and the improvement of their 
soil, who produce two bales of cotton per acre, while the 



Crop Rotation — Its Piirposc and Practice 151 

general average of the cotton belt is about 200 pounds of 
lint per acre with the general ail-cotton practice. 

The adoption of a systematic rotation of crops in the 
South and the use of the cow peas for the feeding of stock, 
would open up a profitable industry in the stock feeding, 
and would result in the making of larger supplies of home- 
made manure to relieve the farmer from the constant pur- 
chase of commercial fertilizers. Then, too, the getting of 
the fibrous matter from the pea roots and the humus from 
the manure, accompanied by deeper plowing and level 
cultivation, would check the great tendency of the South- 
ern uplands to wash into gullies, for the clean culture of 
generations, with the shallow plowing of the one-horse 
plow, has been the means for great waste in this way, as 
we have shov^i in the preceding chapter. The adoption 
of a short rotation and the growing of the legume crops 
would enable the Southern hill farmer to dispense with 
the expensive terracing now found necessary to check 
the washing of his lands. 

„^^ ^ Of course, no hard and fast rules can be 

What ' 

Rotation is laid dovm that will apply to every farmer's 

Best for the conditions. But the following have been 

Cotton found admirably adapted to the needs of the 

Farmer 

upland cotton farmer. Beginning with corn 

on the land, he should sow peas among the com, at last 

cultivation of the crop. The corn should be cut and 

cured in shocks, and if the peas have made a rank growth 

they can be mown for hay, and the surface then finely 

chopped up with a cutaway harrow to prepare the land 

between the shock rows for wheat or winter oats, and 

after the shocks have been removed the spaces they occu- 



152 Practical Farming 

pied may be sown to oats later. Cut these oats and im- 
mediately after harvest break the land well and sow cow 
peas broadcast for a hay crop to be cut as soon as the first 
pods begin to turn yellow. Then crimson clover seed 
should be sown on the pea stubble as a winter cover. 
This clover can be turned in the spring and the land pre- 
pared for cotton, using on the cotton only the mineral 
fertilizers, acid phosphate and potash, for the clover and 
peas preceding will give all the nitrogen needed, and fully 
half the cost of the fertilizer will thus be saved. At the last 
working of this cotton sow the crimson clover seed again 
at the rate of fifteen pounds per acre among the cotton. 
Now, during the winter haul out and spread with a manure- 
spreader on this clover all the home-made manure from 
the feeding of the pea forage and the corn fodder, and 
when the clover blooms in the spring turn it under deeply 
for corn again. Cultivate this corn level and shallow, 
and repeat the sowing of peas among it and then repeat 
the general rotation. Following this method a few years 
will soon show a great increase, not only in the cotton 
crop but in the corn and small grain crops as well. One 
young farmer whom we had induced to adopt this rota- 
tion for cotton, wrote to me enthusiastically that he had 
found that cotton was not the only crop that would bring 
him money, for he had made seventy-five bushels of winter 
oats per acre and then had made two tons per acre of cow 
pea hay on the same land the same season, and that the 
hay was salable at $20 per ton, so that the crop of oats 
and hay were worth a great deal more than a crop of cot- 
ton ; that the oats and the feeding of stock gave him cash 
at different seasons so that he was able to run his cotton 



Crop Rotatio7i — Its Purpose and Practice 153 

crop for cash and hold it if the price did not suit him. 
Systematic rotation of crops and the feeding of stock are 
needed more in the Southern cotton belt than anywhere 
else, for there is no money crop in the country that 
offers a better prospect for profitable culture than cotton 
with good farming, while there is none that keeps the 
fa,rm and farmer poorer than the all-cotton practice, 
with commercial fertilizers bought on credit and paid for 
out of the cotton crop. 

In the wheat-growing sections of central 
Crop Rotations and southern Pennsylvania especially, the 
for the Winter ^y practice in wheat growing — a practice 
tions of the which is still common in many of the less 
Middle States progressive sections — has been to break an 
old sod for the corn crop, and the follow- 
ing spring to seed the com stubble to oats. The oats 
stubble after harvest is plowed and prepared for wheat, 
with which the land is seeded down to timothy, and in 
spring has some clover seed sown on it. The grass is 
mown for a number of years and then pastured and 
finally broken again for com. 

This involves a long rotation, an enormous amount of 
fencing, and a depletion of the soil before the rotation is 
renewed by the breaking of the sod, which has been 
allowed to remain till no longer profitable for hay or 
pasture. Gradually the best farmers are discovering that 
a shorter rotation and more frequent use of clover or cow 
peas is far better for the development of the production 
of the sale crops. In this shorter rotation the oats crop is 
abandoned as a commercial crop and only grown for the 
supply of feed for the farm horses, as we will note. 



154 Practical Farming 

A Modern In ihc ncighborbood of the larger cities, 

Short Rotation ^]^£j.e there is constant demand for timothy 
for a Wheat , , • , • i , 

Farm ^^1 ^^ good prices, the temptation has al- 

ways been to allow the land to lie in grass 
so long as a moderately fair crop of hay can be made 
from it. But it is far better to get two to three tons 
per acre of hay in one year than to get a ton or half 
a ton for several years. There is no reason why a farmer, 
who is situated near a good hay market, should not sell 
hay as well as any other crop grown, provided he takes 
other means for keeping up the humus-making material 
in his soil. Whether the rotation shall be a three-year or 
a four-year one will depend on the conditions and environ- 
ment of the farmer. If his main object is to get large 
crops of wheat and corn, and to use up all the roughage 
of the farm in feeding stock, the three-year rotation and 
the entire abandonment of timothy will be best. It is 
hard to rid farmers in the Middle States of the notion 
that no matter how short the rotation is they must sow 
some timothy seed when they sow clover. The fact is 
that only clover is needed in such a rotation. Various 
circumstances are gradually forcing the Eastern farmer 
into new methods and shorter rotation of crops. The 
increasing scarcity of timber, and the consequent cost of 
fencing is destined to bring about a change which will be 
of great benefit to the farms. This change is the entire 
abandonment of pasturing the cultivated fields, and hence 
the abandonment of fences that pasturing makes neces- 
sary. The modern grain farm should always have an 
area set apart as a permanent pasture, on which care is 
taken to maintain the sod in good order and free from 



Crop Rotation — Its Purpose and Practice 155 

weeds by annually top-dressing it liberally with commer- 
cial fertilizers, and an occasional going over with the hay 
rake to scatter the droppings of the animals. 

This permanent pasture will be the only part of the 
farm needing a fence, since in most states they no longer 
pass laws about what sort of a fence is a lawful one to 
keep other people's stock off your land, but have gone back 
to the sensible common-law doctrine that every one is 
responsible for his stock and not for that of other people, 
and that hence he is obliged to fence his cattle in, but not 
to fence other people's cattle out. This change has come 
about largely from the recognition of the fact that every 
farmer owns the fee simple to one-half the highway in 
front of his farm, and that he has only dedicated this to 
the public as a means for travel, but still owns whatever 
grows on the land, and hence owns the pasturage, which 
the public has no right to use and compel him to fence 
their straying cattle out. This abandonment of fences 
over large sections will gradually become the rule every- 
where, and with it must come a great improvement of 
the cattle and live stock in general, and a more rapid im- 
provement of the land through the abandonment of pas- 
turing on the fields devoted to crops. 

Having the permanent pasture, the laying 
An Improving ^^ ^^ ^^ ordinary farm is usually easy, es- 
Three-year . „ , . , , , i . 

Rotation pecially when we mtend to run the whole m 

but three general divisions. It may not 

always be practicable to make each section or field of 

exactly the same size, but it is desirable that they shall 

be as nearly equal as the character of the land will permit. 

We will assume that we have a field in sod, another, 



156 Practical Farming 

which was in corn the year before, will be in wheat, and 
a third from which wheat was taken last year, will have a 
stand of clover to be cut for hay. Starting then, in the 
spring we will plow that sod deeply after having appUed 
to it all the manure that can be saved from the stock fed 
during the winter, and hauled on the sod whenever it was 
fit during the winter and spring, always remembering 
that manure kept on hand is always losing value, and the 
least loss is when it is spread on the field. If the land 
had been long in sod it would have been better to have 
plowed it the fall before, and to have run a subsoil plow 
after the turning plow to deeply loosen the land, and then 
to have sown rye as a winter cover and to catch the fleeting 
nitrates that form even in the winter. But starting in the 
spring, all we can do is to give the sod a deep breaking 
and thorough preparation for the corn crop. But having 
deeply plowed the land and turned down the sod, the sub- 
sequent cultivation of the corn crop should be as shallow 
and level as possible. From Pennsylvania southward it 
is a good practice to sow some of the Southern cow peas 
among the corn at the last working, and later, as these 
ripen and the leaves are falling, to sow seed of crimson 
clover among them, letting all remain as a winter cover if 
the corn is to be followed by oats in spring and the rotation 
made longer. But in the three-year rotation we are be- 
ginning we will cut the corn as soon as well glazed and 
will shock it in rows as wide apart as practicable. Then, 
if the peas have made a heavy growth they may be mown 
for hay, but if not very heavy they can be chopped up with 
the cutaway harrow and the surface made for and seeded 
to wheat. Now, as this wheat will have ready for it a 



Crop Rotation — Its Purpose and Practice 157 

good deal of nitrogen from the decay of the sod and the 
manure apphed to the corn, and also from the growth of 
the peas, it will not be wise to apply a complete commercial 
fertilizer, that is, one containing nitrogen, since the tend- 
ency of an excess of nitrogen is to make too rank a 
growth of straw, and consequently a risk of lodging and 
failure of the crop. But the perfection of the grain crop 
demands that there shall be an abundance of available 
phosphoric acid and potash present. Therefore, it will 
always be found profitable to apply about 400 pounds 
per acre of acid phosphate and muriate of potash mixed 
in proportion of six parts of the first to one of the latter 
material. 

The soil having become well settled from the spring 
plowing and cultivation of the corn, it will be far better 
for the wheat that only the surface shall be chopped fine 
with the cutaway, since a well-settled soil is needed for 
the wheat. The fertihzer will of course be harrowed in 
the preparation of the land. The com and stover are 
gotten off during the late fall and winter, and in spring 
the shock rows can be sown to oats, and the whole land 
seeded with clover, using the medium red clover as the 
best for general purposes. After the wheat harvest, and 
as soon as the ever-present rag weeds start, run the mower 
over the stubble to cut them off and give the young clover 
a chance to develop. 

The following spring, before any growth is apparent 
in the clover, spread on it twenty bushels per acre of 
freshly water-slaked hme, and run the smoothing harrow 
over to spread it evenly and to mix it v^th the soil. 

The clover should be cut twice during the summer, the 



158 Practical Farming 

second crop containing Ihc seed, and if your land is clean 
of weeds you can keep it so better by sowing clover seed 
of your own growth than by buying it and getting other 
people's weeds. This completes the rotation, and you 
now have a clover sod on which to haul and spread ma- 
nure as fast as made until spring, when it should again be 
turned for corn and the rotation repeated. By practicing 
this rotation, lands that formerly made ten bushels of 
wheat and forty bushels of corn per acre now make forty 
bushels of wheat and seventy-five bushels of com per acre. 
In sections where the crop of Irish pota- 
How this ^Qj,g j^^ -^^ made a profitable part of the 

Rotation May . "^ . ^ , , r , 

Be Varied farm croppmg, a part or even half the sod 

land devoted to corn may be used for the 
potato crop. If this is practiced, it will be better, on the 
part used for the potatoes, not to apply the barnyard 
manure, which is apt to encourage the scab, but to give 
the potatoes a hberal dressing of acid phosphate and 
muriate of potash, mixed as suggested for the wheat crop, 
but in at least double the amount and mainly in the fur- 
rows before planting, since the potato does not spread its 
roots widely like the corn. This potato crop will put the 
land in the best possible condition for the wheat crop fol- 
lowing, and in the next round of the rotation the part of 
the clover sod that was last plowed for potatoes should be 
used for corn, and in this way both corn and potatoes will 
come on the land but once in six years, and the manurial 
needs of each will be best served. 

The idea in the above suggestions is to so arrange the 
rotation that the wheat, which will be the main sale crop, 
will have the best chance. Corn, being a gross feeder. 



Crop Rotation — Its Ptirpose and Practice 159 

can better be used to consume to some extent the food 
supplied by the turned-under sod with its coarse manure, 
and the cultivation of the corn and potatoes will put the 
plant food in the soil in the best possible condition for 
the wheat, aided by the mineral fertilizer applied, and the 
soil also will be in the best mechanical condition for seed- 
ing the wheat crop without replowing, so that if the 
land is well broken for the corn or the corn and 
potato crops there will be but the one breaking in three 
years, and a great deal of labor will be saved while 
the crops will be benefited. 

I do not mean those sections of the Mid- 
Where Clover ^^^ ^^^ Northern States where clover for- 
Does Not 11. 

Thrive Well merly throve, and where it has now become 

difficult to get a stand, but the more Southern 
sections of the wheat-growing area in which clover has 
seldom been a success through the long summers. Here 
a similar rotation can be practiced with crimson or the 
annual winter-growing clover, and cow peas used as the 
legume crops for the making of hay and the improvement 
of the soil in nitrogen. Assuming that we start with a 
growth of crimson clover sown the fall before and on which 
the farm manure has been spread during the winter and 
spring, we will plow the whole growth under when the 
clover is in bloom, and prepare the land for corn, sowing 
peas among the corn at last working as before. These 
peas are to be mown for hay and the land prepared for 
wheat or winter oats, and at once, after harvest, the land 
is again well plowed and cow peas again sown, using not 
less than one bushel of seed per acre broadcast. When 
the peas have reached a proper state of maturity, as shown 



160 Practical Farming 

by the pods turning yellow for ripening, and the stubble 
well disked and again seeded to fall grain, which the fol- 
lowing summer is again followed by peas for hay, and 
the stubble disked and seeded to crimson clover, on which 
the farm manure is to be again spread during the winter 
and turned under for corn again in the spring. 

In this rotation we have an abundance of forage crops 
for feeding and making manure, and if each pea crop is 
dressed with 300 to 400 pounds per acre of the phosphoric 
acid and potash mixture heretofore advised for wheat, 
the forage will be greatly increased, and the means for 
stock feeding also, so that a large amount of manure can 
be raised on the balanced ration of the pea hay combined 
with the corn stover either used dry or as ensilage. In 
the three-year rotation there will be two wheat crops, one 
after corn and another after peas, which will usually be 
the best one, and there will always be a green manure 
crop for the corn. It will be seen that in these rotations 
there is no purchase of artificial nitrogen, and in any 
grain or cotton farming the peas and clover will furnish 
all the nitrogen needed, and will thus make a great saving 
in the purchase of fertilizers. 

The need of an improving rotation of 

A Rotation crops is greater perhaps in the cotton belt 

for an Upland , . 

Cotton Farm ^^^^ ^^ ^^7 other section of the country. 

The practice of planting cotton year after 
year on the same land, and depending on complete com- 
mercial fertilizers only for the making of a crop, has re- 
sulted disastrously all over the Southern uplands. The 
soil, deprived of humus and plowed very shallowly with 
one-mule plows, has washed into gullies, and with the shal- 



Crop Rotation— Its Purpose and Practice 161 

low plowing the terrace banks erected to stop the washing 
have been generally ineffective when extra rainfalls occur, 
since they often fill and cause a heavier washing by the 
accumulated head of water in them. Terracing is only a 
partial preventive to the washing, and the only real and 
permanent preventive to the tendency of the land to wash 
is deep breaking and a restoration of the vegetable matter 
which the long clean culture in cotton has used up. 

In no section of the country will deep subsoiling work 
greater benefit than on the red clay hills of the Southern 
cotton country. The summer rains come in great floods 
and cloudbursts, and the soil being plowed but three or 
four inches deep, with a hard clay subsoil right below, 
the shallow plowed surface gets into a creamy state and 
must run down hill, since there is nowhere else for it to 
go. But if the land is plowed more deeply and the sub- 
soil plow follows in the same furrow so as to loosen the 
whole surface to a depth of 12 to 15 inches, it will take an 
enormous rainfall to move the mass. And more than this, 
the deeply broken mass will retain the water that would 
otherwise be washed down hill, and by shallow and level 
cultivation can be retained in the soil to carry the crops 
through the long droughts that are about as common as 
the floods of rain. Deep plowing and shallow and level 
culture to form no furrows to gather a head of water, will 
be far more effectual in preventing washing and gully for- 
mation on the Southern uplands than any terraces that 
can be contrived with the shallow plowing that has been 
the rule. When these lands were first cleared from the 
forest they did not wash, because they were full of humus 
and fibrous vegetable matter. They were mellow and 



162 Practical Farming 

easily cultivated, and were retentive of moisture. But 
year after year the soil was exposed to the sun in the 
cleanest of cultivation which the crop of cotton demands, 
till the vegetable decay was used up and the soil began 
to crust and bake, became harder to cultivate till the plow 
became a necessity for working the hard soil. 

The remedy is to restore the new-ground conditions 
through getting back the wasted humus by a systematic 
use of a short rotation aided by the growing of forage crops 
and the feeding of live stock. It is hard to get the South- 
ern farmers to realize that the subsidiary crops used in a 
rotation can of themselves be a source of profit while in- 
creasing the capacity of the land for the production of the 
staple money crop. They have so long been accustomed 
to look to the cotton for all the money they want and im- 
agining that they cannot afford to grow other crops needed 
for the stock, that there has been in many sections an 
entire abandonment of cattle-feeding, and no animals are 
kept but the mules that cultivate the crop, and the cotton 
is expected to pay for all, to buy the mules themselves, 
pay for hay and grain to feed them with, pay the fertilizer 
manufacturer a long price for credit on the fertihzers used, 
while the farmer, with all depending on the single crop 
is at the mercy of the whole. For generations the South- 
ern farmers were taught that their money crop was not 
adapted to rotative farming as practiced by good farmers 
in other sections, and they have gone on in the blind faith 
that cotton was the only thing that could be made to pay 
in the South. 

But a change is gradually coming, and here and there 
farmers who are studying and endeavoring to improve. 



Crop Rotation — Its Purpose and Practice 163 

are showing the value of a rotation of crops that is designed 
for the improvement of the soil for the money crop. When 
one farmer at least, to our knowledge, has succeeded in 
an average season in producing two bales of lint-cotton 
per acre in a section where the average crop is less than a 
fourth of a bale, and has done it with less use of the com- 
mercial fertilizers than his neighbors who make the 
smaller crops, it must finally dawn on the Southern cotton 
grower that his crop, as much as any other crop, is adapted 
to a diversified farming system. 

It is important in devising a rotation for a cotton farm 
to consider the situation and the soil. In the upper or 
Piedmont country, the land of the red clay hills, wheat 
should be the small-grain crop mainly, though a portion 
of the small-grain area can well be used for the production 
of fall-sown oats, which are often very productive. In 
the more level and sandy sections nearer the coast, the 
true cotton soils, the small-grain crop should be oats 
entirely, since in these lands the winter oats will soon de- 
velop into great productiveness, while the sandy lands are 
not well suited to wheat. Enthusiastic but inexperienced 
advisers of Southern farmers in the Southern press often 
tell the farmers that they should grow everything they 
need that can be produced in the cUmate. The effort to 
do this would not be systematic farming, but merely a 
heterogeneous collection of many things. What is needed 
in the development of a cotton farm is a system of few 
crops all tending to develop the capacity of the land for 
the production of cotton, while of themselves yielding the 
farmer a profit. The rotation would vary hardly at all 
whether in the rolling upper country or on the coastal 



164 Practical Farming 

plain except that on the level coastal plain there will not 
be the same need for the deep subsoiling that is needed on 
the hard red clay of the hills, except where there is a hard 
clay subsoil in reach of the plow. While wheat may be 
the better small-grain crop for the hills and winter oats 
in the plain, the crops may vary to this extent, but the 
preparation and cultivation of the soil will be identical. 

While every farmer must in every section 
A Successful |^g ^t^^ judge of what is best for his particular 
Rotation needs, and suggestions for rotations of crops 

must be largely suggestive, so no one can 
lay down hard and fast rules for the adoption of every 
one, we have known the following rotation to be adopted 
with great success in the South. 

Starting with a cotton crop, which has been fertilized in 
the usual manner with a complete fertilizer of rather low 
grade in the furrow, we will add to this a good dressing of 
a high grade commercial fertilizer in the middles between 
the rows of cotton, for the cotton plant, like the corn plant, 
sends its roots far and wide. We will plant that cotton 
flat, harrowing down the beds after putting in the fertil- 
izer. The first cultivation will be with a smoothing har- 
row before the cotton comes up, so as to break any crust 
that may have formed. Then, after the cotton is up we 
will work it both ways with the weeder, and thus com- 
pletely keep a crust from forming around the plants to 
make them ''sore shinned" in the wind while young and 
tender. Of course, the weeder will tear out some plants, 
but not near as many as will have to come out in chopping 
and will save a great part of the chopping. 

Then all the subsequent cultivation will be done with a 



Crop Rotation — Its Purpose and Practice 165 

fourteen-tooth cultivator, running as shallow as possible, 
or with a two-horse riding cultivator with small teeth and 
arranged so that the operator may shift the teeth from 
side to side and regulate the depth with hand levers. 
This is a far better implement and a greater labor saver 
than the ordinary one-horse cultivator, and is as far 
ahead of that as the one-horse cultivator is ahead of the 
cotton sweep, so largely used in the South. 

The growing scarcity of labor in the South will compel 
the use of labor-saving implements, and as one man riding 
with two horses can do far more work than two men with 
two horses worked singly, the lack of the men will of 
itself soon compel the use of the labor-saver. 

At the last working of the cotton we will sow, while the 
soil is freshly stirred, fifteen pounds per acre of crimson 
clover seed to act as a winter cover on the land. Now, 
during the winter we will get out on this clover all the 
manurial accumulation and spread it broadcast, preferably 
with a manure-spreader in order to make it go as far as 
possible and as evenly as possible. When the clover is in 
bloom we will plow all under for the com crop, and this, 
too, we will cultivate shallowly and level like the cotton, 
after breaking the soil very deeply and thoroughly. Among 
the corn we will sow at the last working cow peas, and 
work them in. We will cut and shock the corn for curing 
as soon as well glazed, and will mow the peas and put the 
stubble in order for the fall crop of oats, on which we will 
apply a dressing of acid phosphate and potash mixed six 
parts of the first to one part of the last named, and use 
about 300 pounds per acre, well harrowed in in the prepara- 
tion of the soil. These oats can either be grown as a grain 



166 Practical Farming 

crop or harvested as hay. But in either event the land 
should be replowed as soon as possible after harvest, and 
one bushel of cow peas sown per acre, using on them the 
same appHcation advised for the oats. Cut the peas for 
hay as soon as properly matured, and sow crimson clover 
again on the pea stubble without any preparation. A little 
rye sown at the same time will not be amiss, as there may 
be a poor stand of clover in the first practicing of this rota- 
tion, but which will improve as the soil gets inoculated 
with the bacteria that hve on the clover. These legumes 
will give you all the nitrogen now needed by the cotton, 
and we can now start with only the broadcast application 
of the phosphoric acid and potash, planting our cotton 
flat and working it always as shallow and as level as pos- 
sible. With each round of this rotation you will find the 
crops of cotton, corn and oats improving in yield if you 
feed all the corn fodder and the pea hay. With the 
amount of forage produced the cotton farmer with such a 
rotation should soon be able to raise enough manure to 
cover his entire corn planting, and this with the peas and 
clover following the oats crop will make the farmer 
annually more and more independent of the fertilizer 
factory. Following this rotation several years, one far- 
mer made a crop of seventy-five bushels of oats per acre 
and made two tons per acre of pea vine hay after the oats 
were cut on the same land the same season, and he found 
that this double crop was of far more commercial value 
per acre than the cotton crop which he had been taught 
to consider the only money crop in the South. 



CHAPTER XI 

CROPS AND CROPPING 

IN the succeeding chapters I propose to take up the 
practical method of cultivating the various American 
farm crops. I hope to give somew^hat in detail the 
best methods adopted in the various sections where these 
crops are grown. Of course, any series of instructions for 
any crop cannot be made hard and fast rules for every 
condition. It is assumed that the reader will be able to 
take the suggestions and adapt them to his own conditions. 

Many of these crops are grown in different climates 
and on a great variety of soils. While the soil on a farm 
may not be the ideal one for a certain crop, it will be found 
that no farmer can afford to entirely ignore the crop that 
for various reasons has become the chief money crop of 
the section. 

Many Northern farmers in changing to a location in 
the South, see the wasted condition of a great deal of the 
soil in the tobacco and the cotton regions, and at once 
jump to the conclusion that the culture of cotton or tobacco 
has been ruinous to the soil, and they conclude that if they 
are to restore the fertihty of the soil they have located 
upon they must ignore these crops. 

But long experience has shown that in some sections 
the soil is well adapted to the cultivation of some of the 

167 



168 Practical Farming 

different types of tobacco, while over a large part of the 
Southern States the cotton crop is the natural money crop, 
a crop in which that section has the advantage of all the 
rest of the world. Hence, it would be a mistake for any 
one going to a new section to assume that the farming 
there is entirely wrong, and that he should abandon the 
crops that he considers responsible for the depleted con- 
dition of the soil. Such a notion is superficial. It is not 
the fault of the tobacco or of the cotton that the lands 
have become unproductive, but it is the result of long- 
practiced and erroneous methods of cultivating these 
crops. The true policy, therefore, for a comer into a 
new district is to accept what nature and long experience 
has estabUshed as the money crop of the section, and then 
undertake to grow it better by improved methods of 
farming. 

While in the greater part of the cotton belt, for instance, 
the practice of depending on the one crop, and cultivating 
the land year after year in cotton, has reduced the pro- 
ductivity of the soil to a very low ebb, there is no more 
profitable money crop grown on the farms of America 
than the cotton crop when used in an improving rotation 
designed for the restoration of the wasted humus that long 
clean cultivation has burnt out of the land. 

Another error that farmers make is moving southward 
or eastward from the fertile lands of the West, as many are 
now doing. This is to charge the waste to the use of com- 
mercial fertihzers and declaring that these are only stimu- 
lants. Commercial fertilizers have been very wastefully 
and injudiciously used in the South, especially by the 
cotton farmers. But we must not jump to the conclusion 



Crops and Cropping 169 

that the use of commercial fertiHzers is a mistake. The 
all-cotton man dribbles a little in the furrow for the crop, 
all of which is at once taken up by the crop, and a fur- 
ther draft is made on the store of plant food in the soil. 
The result is that the land grows poorer instead of better. 

At a farmers' institute in a Southern State, a chemist 
stated in our hearing that the only purpose of the com- 
mercial fertiHzers is to make crops, and that they cannot 
be used for the permanent improvement of the soil. I 
combated this statement at once. This is what the cotton 
farmers have always practiced and have grown poor in 
doing it. My idea is that the true purpose of the com- 
mercial fertiHzers when properly used, is to start the im- 
provement of the land through a proper rotation of crops 
and the growing of the legumes. Some have imbibed the 
error that a good rotation of crops is in itself a method of 
improvement, when in fact a rotation is designed to get 
more out of the land by increasing its humus contents and 
thus rendering available much that would otherwise not 
be gotten from the soil. 

As we have shown, a short rotation in which the legume 
crops come in frequently on the land as a means for get- 
ting the use of the free nitrogen of the air and also of in- 
creasing the humus-making material in the soil, demands 
that we keep up the supply in the soil of the mineral mat- 
ters, phosphoric acid and potash, for, while the legumes 
will get us the nitrogen and combine it in organic matter 
to be brought into use for the succeeding crops, they are, 
at the same time, the most greedy consumers of the min- 
eral elements. 

Therefore, while an injudicious use of commercial fer- 



170 Practical Farming 

tilizers combined with continuous clean culture of one 
crop, has resulted in wasted fields, and a great waste of 
money for what the farmer in a good rotation can get 
without buying, the proper and Hberal use of the mineral 
forms of plant food is the most rapid and profitable 
method for improving the condition of the soil. 

We have often urged that in any ordinary grain or cotton 
farming the farmer who farms right will never need to buy 
any nitrogen in any form, for the legumes will give him 
plenty for the succeeding crop and will give him also 
forage, which, fed to stock, will enable him to make more 
manure at home and thus have less and less need for a 
complete fertihzer. But all of our older cultivated soil 
has become deficient, from the carrying off of crops, in 
phosphoric acid and potash, especially in phosphoric acid. 
There is no way in which we can get these back to the 
soil from the air as we can the nitrogen, and hence, they 
must be restored in some artificial way. 

In recent years there has been a great deal said and 
written about a little farm near Philadelphia where Doctor 
Detrich made the soil so fertile that he supported thirty 
cows, so far as hay and roughage was concerned, on less 
than fifteen acres of land, and the soil became so fertile 
that he not only did this but had hay to sell. Doctor 
Detrich boasted that he used no commercial fertilizer. 

But he bought liberally of grain for the cows. This 
grain was grown on some one else's land, and the Doctor 
was simply transferring the fertility of other people's land 
to his own. He had a near market for dairy products at a 
good price and, therefore, could afford to do this. 

But there are few general farmers who can afford to buy 



Crops and Cropping 171 

the fertility of other people's land in this way, and these 
must get what their land needs in some other way. The 
most ready way is through the use of commercial fer- 
tilizers. 

There has been so much experimentation with com- 
mercial fertihzers on various crops by the experiment 
stations all over the country that farmers in many sections 
have imbibed the notion that for every crop grown they 
need a specially adapted fertilizer mixture. 

In the discussion of the various crops we will endeavor 
to show what we consider the proper use of these fertihzers 
in the growth of the money crops through their use more 
directly on the crops that feed the stock, feed the land, 
and increase the humus of the soil. In order to treat 
more fully of the crops that do these things we will follow 
the chapters on the leading farm crops with one especially 
devoted to the various legume crops that are so important 
in the improvement of the soil, for, as we have often 
stated, in our opinion the farmer of the future must be a 
legume farmer, and must depend more and more on this 
class of plants for feeding his stock and feeding his soil. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE INDIAN CORN CROP 

THIS is the great cereal crop of the United States. 
Wheat may rank higher as an export crop direct, 
but the corn crop is the great feed crop of 
America, and while not so largely exported as grain, the 
results of feeding it to cattle and hogs make the export of 
beef, pork, etc., a very important item. Owing to the wide 
range of climate to which Indian com has become adapted 
it has become the most important forage and feed crop of 
America, thriving, in its numerous varieties from Maine 
to Texas. Through the central Western States we have 
what is called the great corn belt, where, owing to the 
virgin fertihty of the soil, its cultivation on a large scale 
has made these states the great stock, dairy and pork 
producing sections of the country. 

But corn is naturally a plant of the tropics, and the 
longer seasons of the cotton belt make this section pe- 
culiarly adapted to the cultivation of the crop since there 
is never any risk from early frosts catching it as there is 
in a large part of what is called the corn belt. But in the 
South, the exclusive devotion of the farmers to the cotton 
crop has led to careless cultivation of corn, and in many 
sections to a dependence on the West for all the corn 
needed. Added to this, the careless selection of seed, 
which has allowed the plant to attain the natural devel- 

172 



The Indian Corn Crop 173 

opment of stalk common to warmer climates, so that the 
general notion has arisen that corn in the South must be 
planted very wide apart to give it air, and with a single 
stalk in a hill five to six feet apart each way, a large crop 
is out of the question, especially since the tall corn has 
long since, through this same careless selection of the 
biggest ears in the crib, gotten to produce but a single 
ear on a stalk. 

Much has been written of late years in 
Good Seed regard to the selection of the seed of the 

Selection Indian com plant. Methods of selection 

Important in ^ 

all Sections should, however, be adapted to some ex- 
tent to the conditions of soil and climate 
where the crop is to be grown. In the more Northern 
sections it is important that the crop ripen early so as to 
avoid danger from the early frosts in the fall. Hence, 
the Northern planter needs to select in the first place corn 
that has been produced in his climate, for there is no crop 
grown that is so much influenced by being transferred 
far north or south of the section where the crop is to be 
produced. On the more Northern limit of com culture 
the long-eared, eight-rowed, flint corns are essential to 
success, while coming into more southerly climates the 
dent corn in numerous varieties takes the place of the 
flint, and in the fertile lands of the southern river bottoms 
the horse-tooth or gourd-seed corns find a congenial home, 
and if any of these are transferred northward or south- 
ward they take some time to become acclimated to new 
climatic conditions. 

Therefore, in the improvement of our seed com we 
should avoid sending off north or south of our locality 



174 Practical Farming 

for seed, but should take at the start the corn that has been 
long cultivated in that particular section, and through care- 
ful selection, year after year, breed it to the ideal of what 
we consider the plant should be. 

The great fault in what has been called corn breeding 
of late years has been the taking of the ear as an individual 
unit for the starting point. The ear of com is a great 
aggregation of individual fruits borne on a common recep- 
tacle, the cob. Every fruit or grain is the result of the 
impregnation of a separate pistillate or female flower by 
the male element or pollen. The so-called silks consti- 
tute the pistils or female part of the flower, and each pistil 
is attached to an ovary in which are certain ovules that 
are transformed into seed or grain when the pistil is im- 
pregnated by the pollen. This pollen, or male element, is 
produced in what is called the tassel. Those who have 
noticed a solitary com plant growing at a distance from 
any other corn plant have doubtless observed that it sel- 
dom produces well-filled ears, because little of the fine 
dust-Hke pollen falls directly on the protruding pistils, 
or silks, but is blown away from it, and the silks that 
receive no pollen fail to develop grain. 

But where a large number of corn plants are growing 
together the vast abundance of pollen blown about in all 
directions in apparently wasteful abundance is pretty cer- 
tain to reach all the silks, and the result is a full ear or 
ears on each. We see, then, that the plant that produced 
the grain is seldom the one that fumishes the pollen for the 
perfection of the grain, but that the pollen from the thou- 
sands of stalks around constitutes the male parent of the 
grains on the ear. It is, therefore, perfectly possible that 



The Indian Corn Crop 175 

each fruit or grain on the general receptacle may have had 
a different male parent, and from its male parent may 
inherit very different tendencies. 

And right here is where the popular score-card selection 
fails. The student is instructed to select ears of a par- 
ticular shape, grains of a particular shape, and cob of a 
certain character, all making up what is considered an 
ideal ear. But there is no certainty that these ideal ears 
will reproduce similar ones, since, as we have said, every 
grain on the ear may have inherited different tendencies 
from its male parent. The essential thing, therefore, in 
the effort to improve the corn plant, is to start with the 
true unit of improvement, the grain, and to regard each 
grain as an individual, and endeavor to make the envi- 
ronment such that all the grains of the ears will inherit 
the same or similar tendencies. 

What the farmer should want in any breeding of seed 
is the increase of his crop per acre. He wants bushels of 
corn per acre rather than pretty ears and fewer bushels, 
and mere selection by score card will never advance him 
much. Then, too, in the breeding of any plant the paying 
of attention to one feature of the plant is not true breeding. 
It is Uke some of the fads that stock breeders have at times 
been carried away with, such as breeding animals to a 
particular color without regard to the qualities that make 
them valuable for either dairy or beef purposes. The 
breeder often got the color but with inferior traits for the 
purpose for which he is raising stock. 

So, also, in breeding grain. If we take the ear of com 
as the sole object of our attention, we may succeed in get- 
ting a very uniformly fine ear but on a plant illy adapted 



176 Practical Far mm i^ 

to our needs. In the South it will be long-legged and 
single-eared, and in the North may have characteristics 
that make the plant undesirable and unproductive in 
bushels per acre. What we need at the start is a proper 
ideal of what, in our particular section, should be the ideal 
corn plant. In the North, earliness is of prime imi)ort- 
ance. Then we want proliiicacy, and a stout, short- 
jointed plant that bears its ears as near midway the stalk 
as possible. Selecting by a score card in the barn will 
never tell us anything about the plant on which the ear 
was borne. It will never tell us what sort of plants sur- 
rounded it and furnished to the pistils the pollen needed 
for the perfection of th(^ grain, and this sort of selection 
tends to decreased productiveness since the pretty ear 
selection will eventually result in the production of a 
single ear on a plant. 

Heredity is one of the strongest forces in nature, and 
the constant and long-continued selection toward a well- 
considered ideal plant will gradually establish a hereditary 
tendency to come true to seed, as the saying is. That is, 
we establish a family or strain of common ancestry and 
common inherited tendencies. 

Then, of course, it follows that the proper selection of 
corn for seed must be made in the field by close attention 
to the character of the whole plant during the entire sea- 
son of growth. If we wish our pretty ear to become 
fixed in its tendencies to reproduce such ears, we must 
see that the plant does not get pollen from plants that 
produce inferior ears. If we want to increase the number 
of ears on the plant, and so increase the yield of the crop 
per acre, we must sec that the plants that have the pro- 



The Indian Corn Crop 177 

lific tendency are the ones to furnish the pollen for the 
whole. 

In short, we must select the plants that come nearest 
to the ideal we have formed of what we want in a corn 
plant, and then must see that it has all disturbing ten- 
dencies removed from it. We must not allow the ears on 
a prolific plant to be set by pollen from a plant that pro- 
duces a single ear or none. In the corn crop of this coun- 
try it has been estimated that lo per cent, of the stalks in 
every field make no ear. But these barren stalks will 
produce pollen, and this pollen will impregnate the pistils 
of the plants all around it, and thus the tendency to pro- 
duce barren stalks is perpetuated. And selection by 
score card tells us nothing about this, and it may be, and 
often is the case, that grain on an inferior nubbin may 
be better seed than the grain on a large and handsome 
ear, simply because of better male parents. 

Plant, from the best seed obtainable. 

How Shall We y^j^j^^j^ ^g^s hccn produced in the same local- 
Select Our . 
Seed Corn ^^Y' ^ separate patch for seed. Plant as 

usual for a crop, and give the patch the best 

possible cultivation. Then, having formed in mind the 

ideal corn plant you desire, watch the growth during the 

season. When the plants show signs of making tassels 

and silks, go through the patch row by row, and pull out 

the tassels from all stalks that show no signs of ears and 

from all inferior and weakly stalks, so that the pollen for 

the impregnation of the silks will all be borne on plants 

that come nearest to the ideal you have formed. You 

want plants that are stout, leafy, and short jointed, and 

which bear the ears, two or more, at a convenient distance 



178 Practical Farming 

from the ground. In short, the ears should be nearly 
half-way between the tassel and the ground. 

From this patch select the best ears, taking those 
especially good, and from the most productive plants, for 
the seed patch the next year, and use the remainder for 
the general crop. By persevering in this way, year after 
year, you will establish a heredity so that your corn will 
come annually nearer and nearer to a fixed type. When 
the hereditary tendency to produce prolific plants, and 
few or no barren ones has been fixed, it will be time 
enough to look after the particular style of ear you may 
prefer. Of course, in selecting seed for a northern locality, 
you must pay attention to the earhness of the plants and 
select with that in mind. But from Virginia, southward, 
there is no necessity for particular earliness, and that may 
be left out of the calculation since the climate is adapted 
to the full ripening of any variety, and the earHest are 
not always the best for the South. 

Indian corn is the grossest feeder of all 
The Place in ^^ crops grown on the farm, and hence is 
for the Corn ^^^ °^^ ^^^^ adapted to use the rough ma- 
Crop nure of the farm to get it into the best con- 
dition for the following crops of small grain. 
Hence, in a rotation where wheat is the money crop, and 
the rotation is a short one, the com should come on the 
clover sod from which the hay was cut the year before. 
This clover sod furnishes a ready place for the regular 
hauUng of the home-made manure as fast as it accumu- 
lates. The manure should be gotten out and spread, 
preferably with the manure-spreader, all during the fall 
and winter. No loss of any amount need be feared from 



The Indian Corn Crop 179 

letting the manure lie on the surface during the winter, 
for it will lose far less there than if kept in the barnyard, 
and the absorptive power of the soil will hold on to its 
valuable constituents. In the spring the sod and manure 
are to be turned under deeply, the land thoroughly pre- 
pared with the harrow and planted. The planting will 
depend largely on local conditions. On level land it is 
the common practice in the Middle and Northern States 
to plant in hills about three and a half to four feet apart 
each way, so that the cultivation may be in both directions, 
leaving two or three stalks in the hill, and with the more 
dwarf-growing flint corns sometimes four stalks in the hill. 
In the South, and particularly in the Southern hill lands, 
where there is danger of washing, all rows for cultivation 
must run on the contour of the hills, and hence corn is 
always planted in continuous rows with a single stalk in 
each place. On the level lands of the cotton coast belt, 
the tall growth of corn has led to planting it very thinly 
— one stalk in a hill, five to six feet apart each way. No 
effort is made to breed the natural tall growth of the corn 
down to a more moderate stature, and the general opinion 
is that the wide planting is necessary there. But where 
there has been attention given to the proper breeding of 
the plants, com can be planted much closer, and a more 
prolific strain established. Plants that produce but a 
single ear in single hills six feet apart cannot produce a 
large crop no matter how fertile the land, and therefore 
it is of especial importance to attend to the breeding of 
the corn in the South. We have found that on the hill 
lands of the South corn properly bred can be planted in 
rows less than four feet apart and fifteen inches in the rows, 



180 Practical Farming 

and produce maximum crops tried by the scale of any 
section. 

But whatever the method used in planting, the after cul- 
tivation should always be level and shallow, except in low 
flat lands lliat need drainaj^e, where it may be necessary 
to plant on ridges and to keep the middles clear to assist 
in the drainage. But these lands are exceptional. The 
first cultivation of the corn crop should be made before 
the grain germinates, and the best implement is the smooth- 
ing harrow to merely break the crust and allow the grain 
to germinate easily and uniformly. Then follow with the 
weeder, going both ways. A j)lant here and there may be 
damaged by the weeder, but there is nolliing that will help 
the young corn plants to start off ahead of the weeds so 
well. After the corn gets six or eight inches high the two- 
horse riding cultivator, which enables the operator to 
cultivate both sides of a row at once, is the imi)lement to 
use. The linal cultivation, after the corn gets tall and 
shows signs of tasselling, is the small tooth one-horse cul- 
tivator or the spring tooth single harrow. Cultivated in 
this way there will be no furrows to catch a head of water 
to start a wash down hill, and the shallow cultivation will 
retain the moisture in the soil, especially if the cultivation 
is kept uj) in dry weather and a loose blanket of soil is 
kept on the surface. Worked in this way the roots are 
unharmed and the moisture kept right where they seek it. 

The common practice, especially in the Middle and 
Southern States, is to throw a furrow to the rows with a 
turning plow as the "laying-by" cultivation. This tears 
the feeding roots olT and gives a serious check to the corn, 
and at the same time turns up the soil to dry out and thus 



The Indian Corn Crop 181 

still further injures the crop. Many farmers think that 
this earthing up helps the stalks to withstand the wind 
better, when in fact it weakens them. Corn plants on a 
level surface throw out strong brace roots, which are 
nature's means for holding it erect. If these are covered 
they arc made soft and weak, and the effort is made to 
throw out others above the ground, which do not find a 
good foothold on the sloping ridge, and the corn blows 
down worse for the hilling. 

We have dwelt so fully upon the cultiva- 
Uses of the . , . . r ., i 

Corn CroD ^ improvement of the corn crop be- 

cause it is the greatest of all forage crops not 
only in this country, but the greatest crop for the feeding 
of live stock that can be found in any country. It has 
placed this country in the van in the production of beef 
and pork for the markets of the world. Hence the uses 
that the American farmer can make of the crop and the 
most economical and profitable uses are important matters 
for study. While corn is of course used largely as human 
food, the object of the present work is to point out its 
most profitable use in the feeding of our domestic animals. 
In too many sections there is a great waste of valuable 
food in the corn crop. This is especially the case in what 
is called the great com belt of the Central West. There 
it is common to gather only the grain and then turn cattle 
into the field to glean the fodder that, standing in the frost, 
has become practically worthless. The cattle strip the 
stalks of the leaves and leave the remainder. And this is 
not the only mischief. The cattle ranging over the soft 
and wet ground puddle and pouch the soil, and do serious 
injury to it in the future cultivation. 



182 Practical Farming 

Then, too, the land is left bare all winter, and loses 
fertihty in the winter rains, when it should have a green 
winter cover crop to catch the fleeting plant food and hold 
it to be returned to the soil in the spring. 

Carefully made experiments have shown that the stalks, 
leaves and husks of the com have a feeding value equal 
to the grain. Hence, in this way for using the crop nearly 
half of its feeding value is sacrificed. Of course, in a 
large part of the corn belt the sale of the matured grain 
is an important matter, and few feed to stock all that they 
grow, though in most cases this could be done with profit. 
But even where the grain is largely sold the fodder can be 
saved in a way that will make it far more valuable as stock 
food. Letting the stalks stand till the grain is mature 
enough to gather and store, leaves the stover of very httle 
real value. 

But if the corn is cut while the fodder is still good and 
untouched by frost, that is, as soon as the ears are well 
glazed, and is cured in shocks, the fodder is of far more 
value for feeding. Modern machinery has greatly lessened 
the labor of cutting and shocking the com. We now have 
machines that cut and bind and shock the corn. Then, 
when it is cured, we have the buskers and shredders that 
separate the corn from the stover and tear up the whole 
stalk and leaves into such a shape that not only is a far 
larger portion eaten, but the waste part is in such a shape 
that it makes a more valuable bedding material and ab- 
sorbent for the manure liquids. 

The clearing of the land from the stalks leaves it in 
shape for the sowing of small grain that should follow, 
and even where it is the practice to follow the corn crop 



The Indian Corn Crop 183 

with oats in the spring, the sowing of a winter cover crop 
even of rye, is an important matter to prevent loss of fer- 
tility in the winter and to add humus in the plowing in 
spring for the oats crop, and the shredded fodder can be 
stacked and kept in perfect condition, and will make a 
far better feed than the cattle could get by ranging the 
stalk fields in winter when they should be comfortably 
housed and regularly fed. 

„, „., But the most important and valuable in- 

The Silo , . . . , , 

vention m connection with the corn crop in 

recent years has been the invention of the silo, into which 
the green corn is cut and preserved in a succulent state 
for feeding in winter and for tiding over a drought in sum- 
mer when the grasses fail in the pastures. For the man 
whose interest is in live stock, either as a beef feeder or as 
a dairyman, the silo is indispensable. Through its use he 
can make his farm carry profitably far more stock than 
he could profitably feed on the dry food. 

A silo is merely a building made as nearly air tight as is 
practicable at bottom and sides and freely ventilated above, 
into which the corn is cut by machinery made for the pur- 
pose into half-inch pieces when it is in the green or roast- 
ing ear state. The fermentation that ensues drives out 
the air and the green feed is preserved in a succulent 
state closely resembling the green forage of the pastures. 
In the first introduction of the silo in this 
of the Silo country, and the development of the ensi- 
laging practice, it was common to make the 
silo under ground by excavating and walhng up a great pit. 
It was also the practice to plant the com very thickly in 
the rows, literally sowing it in furrows. This resulted in 



184 Practical Farming 

a very immature product with few ears and little grain. 
Then, when this immature corn was put into the silo it 
made a very sour silage, and many formed a prejudice 
against the whole practice from this quality of the prod- 
uct. It was also thought important that the cut corn be 
packed very tightly as the silo was filled, and when the 
filling was completed a board cover was [)laced over the 
top and tons of rock or bags of sand were piled on it to 
still further compact the mass. 

The result was a slow fermentation and a very sour 
article of feed, and though cattle soon got fond of it the 
odor was not pleasant and the milk was apt to absorb 
some of it, so that the companies engaged in making con- 
densed milk refused to take the product from cows fed 
on silage. 

Another difliculty was found in the use of the under- 
ground pits. This was the labor and cost of hoisting out 
the feed, and the large amount of spoiled silage from the 
constant condensation on the cold cement walls, and in 
the corners where it was hard to exclude the air. In 1886, 
after thinking seriously over the defects in the then com- 
mon practice, 1 came to the conclusion that we were mak- 
ing a mistake in the tight board cover and the weighting 
of it with rocks. I had also come to the conclusion that 
corn planted so that it would make good ears would be 
more valuable as ensilage. Therefore, that season, for the 
first time, I had well-matured corn and cut it in the silo in 
the state a little too hard for roasting ears but still quite 
green. After filling the silo I covered it with a foot of cut 
straw to catch the mold that always gathers near the top. 
The result was the best and sweetest ensilage I had ever 



The Indian Corn Crop 185 

made up to that time. But I still found that in my under- 
ground pits I had a great deal of spoiled silage next the 
walls and in the corners. Added to this was the great labor 
of hoisting the material out for feeding. 

About this time came the experiments in overground 
silos, and we were all soon using the wooden silos above 
the ground. These did better than the underground ones, 
but still the square corners were a trouble. We cut these 
off and made octagon silos, which were better. Then fol- 
lowed the practice of making doors all the way down on 
one side, fitting tight with the pressure from within and 
being taken out, one by one, as the material reached a 
lower level. These doors made the loading and unloading 
easy. 

Finally, since the octagon seemed so much better, some 
bright man developed the notion to make the silo after 
the manner of the water tanks of the railroads, only that 
the sides should be perpendicular. Hence, of late years 
:he evolution of the silo has been in the direction of im- 
proving on the circular stave type, which has become the 
universal style, though some large silo users are now con- 
structing them in the cylindrical shape, but of reinforced 
cement or concrete construction. But where the making 
of good ensilage is the main object the wooden stave silo 
is the best ever invented, for the concrete construction has 
some of the faults of the old underground silo in the cold 
cement walls causing a great deal of condensation and 
resulting in more spoiled ensilage than in the wooden 
ones. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE WHEAT CROP 

WHEAT is the chief grain exported from the 
United States, both as grain and as manu- 
factured flour. Two classes of wheat are pro- 
duced in this country in general, the winter and the spring 
varieties, and in recent years there has grown up a third 
class in the semi-arid West, the Durum or Macaroni 
wheat. Under the former methods of manufacture all the 
finest flour was made from the white winter wheats of the 
Middle and Upper Southern States. But for many years 
past the improved methods of making flour by the roller 
process have shown that the finest flour is made from the 
hard grained spring wheat of the Northwestern States. 

While winter wheat is sown in the fall months and the 
spring wheat is sown in the spring, the methods of culti- 
vation and the preparation of the soil for the crop are 
identical. Therefore, we will treat mainly of the winter 
wheat and its place in an improving rotation. Formerly 
it was thought important for the best results that wheat 
should be sown on a clover sod plowed early in summ.er 
and kept harrowed or cultivated during the remainder of 
the season till seeding time. But of late years this sum- 
mer fallowing practice has been largely abandoned, since 
the decreased price of the product has made it necessary 
that more economical methods should be adopted, so that 

i86 



The Wheat Crop 187 



now the wheat crop usually follows a summer hoed crop, 

either corn or tobacco. 

In some sections of the country, especially in the central 

states, farmers still adhere to the practice of following the 

corn crop with oats in the spring, and then to prepare the 

oats stubble for wheat. But the best farmers are rapidly 

learning that this following of two small grain crops in 

succession is not the best for the land, and while good 

crops arc important, the progressive farmer should never 

lose sight of the maintenance of the fertility of his soil 

and its increase in productiveness. Therefore, the most 

advanced farmers have found that where wheat is the 

money crop, a short rotation, in which the legumes, 

mainly red clover, come in frequently, is the best not 

only for the land but for the gradual increase in the yield 

of the wheat crop. 

In any system of farming, the crop on 

Various which the farmer mainly relies for income, 

Rotations for , r i r i i i , 

Wheat ^^^ money crop of the farm, should have 

that position in the farm rotation that tends 

to increase the yield of the crop while maintaining and 

increasing the fertility of the soil. 

In the more northern part of the winter wheat region 
the main crop of Irish potatoes shares with Indian corn 
in importance as a hoed crop, and the cultivation of either 
of these makes the best of a summer fallow for the wheat 
that is to follow both. 

Adopting a three-year rotation, the practice would be to 
take a clover sod for the corn and potatoes. On that part 
to be devoted to the corn crop all the manurial accumula- 
tion of the farm should be spread during the fall and 



188 Practical Farming 

winter, and the more rapidly it is gotten out and spread 
after being made, the better, since any way of keeping 
manure in barn or barnyard will result in far more loss 
than spreading it on the field. 

On that part to be devoted to the Irish potato crop it 
will be better to use commercial fertilizers liberally, since 
the use of barnyard manure directly on the potato crop 
tends to encourage the growth of the scab fungus. If this 
course is adopted, when the field comes around again in 
corn and potatoes, the part planted in corn should be used 
then for potatoes and that in potatoes for corn. In this 
way each of these crops will come on the land but once in 
six years, and the land will be alternately manured from 
the barnyard and with fertilizers. 

The sod for potatoes and corn is turned deeply in the 
spring, and the cultivation of both should then be as we 
have indicated for the corn crop, shallow and level and 
rapid. The deep breaking is an important matter both 
for the com and for the crop of wheat that is to follow 
the hoed crops. The corn is, of course, to be cut and 
shocked for curing, and may be shredded and husked or 
used in the silo as the farmer thinks best in his particular 
conditions. 

Neither the com land nor the potato land should be 
replowed after the crops are off, but the soil should be left 
settled from the deep spring plowing, and only the surface 
made fine by repeated harrowing with the cutaway or 
disk harrow. The more complete this fining and tramp- 
ing of the surface is made the better the chance for the 
wheat. This is especially true if the autumn weather is 
dry, as it is apt to be, for the establishment of a fine dust- 



The Wheat Crop 189 

blanket over the surface will tend to keep the moisture in 
and will promote the germination of the grain. 

Of course, in that part where the corn has been grown 
there will be wide spaces where the corn shocks stand in 
rows which cannot be sown to wheat. But these spaces 
can be utilized in spring, after the shocks have been re- 
moved, for getting the farm supply of oats for feeding, 
and on most farms where wheat is the money crop, the 
oats crop is only of importance as feed for the farm 
horses and is seldom an important sale crop. 

The date for sowing the winter wheat 

SowLg^Wheat ^^°P ^^^^ ^^"^^ ^'^'^^ ^^^ cUmate of the 
locality. What would be early sowing in 
one part of the winter wheat belt would be late sowing 
in another. Too early sowing must be avoided because 
of the danger that the crop will be attacked by the 
Hessian fly in the fall. Hence, we have always advised 
that the first appearance of a hoar frost should be the sig- 
nal for wheat sowing, as after that there will be little dan- 
ger from the fall fly, and there will still be time enough for 
the crop to get strong enough to pass the winter in safety. 
This rule would make the sowing from early September 
on the northern limit of the winter wheat belt to November 
on the southern side. 

From Pennsylvania, southward, we would 
Clover Crop 3,lways sow red clover seed in the fall at 
wheat seeding. In the northern part of this 
section it may at times fail from a hard winter following, 
but in that case there is always another chance to sow in 
the spring, as most farmers now do. In the northern part 
of the winter wheat belt, the clover is best sown in early 



190 Practical Farming 

spring when the soil freezes at night and thaws the next 
morning, so that the seed will be covered by the thawing. 
But further South this spring sowing is fully as risky as 
the fall sowing. There, a warm spell may ensue and the 
clover seed will germinate, and then a return of cold when 
it is in a very tender state, may destroy it entirely, as I 
have had happen in my own experience in Virginia. 

Therefore, in the more southern sections, if the fall 
seeding should fail, the spring sowing should not be made 
till freezing is past. Then a light smoothing harrow run 
over the wheat will prepare the soil for the seed, and the 
spring rains will soon cover it. 

Of the general complaint in all the winter wheat sec- 
tions of the failure of clover in late years, we will speak 
more fully in the discussion of the clover crop itself. 

After getting a good stand of clover it can be mown for 
hay one season or left for two seasons, as the conditions of 
the farmer seem best. If mown but one season it will be 
better for the crops of wheat and corn, and the rotation 
will then be three years, clover, potatoes and corn, and 
then wheat and oats. 

From Virginia, southward, red clover is a 
Wheat in the ^^^ uncertain crop, and there the cow pea 
South with .„ , , 1 , T 1 ., 

Cotton "^^^^ "^ ^^"^^ °^^^ legume. In the true cotton 

belt, the level sandy soils of the Atlantic 
coast and Gulf regions, wheat is of minor importance, 
and there the winter oats will largely take the place of 
wheat in the rotation. But in the upper or Piedmont 
sections of the cotton belt wheat can be profitably grown 
in a good rotation with cotton. There, too, the wheat 
should follow the corn crop among which cow peas have 



The Wheat Crop 191 

been sown at last working, and arc thoroughly chopped 
up with the disk harrow in preparing for wheat. After the 
wheat, on which an application of acid phosphate has been 
made, the land is well broken and sown to cow peas at the 
rate of one and a half bushels per acre. These are to be 
cut for hay, and crimson clover sown at once on the 
stubble. The clover is turned under in spring for cotton, 
planted on the level and worked level and shallow, and at 
last working of the cotton, crimson clover seed are again 
sown to be plowed under in spring for corn, after all the 
manurial accumulations of the farm have been spread on 
the clover during the winter. This will give a three-year 
rotation that will soon result in heavy crops of wheat and 
heavy crops of cotton, and the forage grown from the peas 
and com will enable the Southern farmer to feed more 
stock and make more manure at home, and so get gradu- 
ally independent of the fertilizer factory except for phos- 
phoric acid and potash. 

Rotative cropping and the feeding of live stock are the 
great needs of the South, and system like this will soon 
develop the fact that in all the Piedmont region of the 
South the crop of wheat and pea vine hay the same season 
will be worth more really than the cotton crop. But of the 
cotton crop in general we will treat in a separate chapter. 
Single cropping in any region and with 

Wheat Crop ^^^ ^^^P ^'^^ finally result in soil exhaustion 
and poverty to the farmer. It has had this 
result in the cotton country, and many tobacco sections of 
the South, and it is rapidly having this effect in the spring 
wheat sections of the Northwest. While in the old soils 
of the winter wheat section of the East the farmers in 



192 Practical Farming 

some sections have, through a good rotation of crops and 
a wise use of the cheaper forms of commercial fertilizers, 
got their lands up to the production of forty or more 
bushels of wheat per acre, the lands of the fertile plains of 
the Northwest in Minnesota and the Dakotas have fallen 
in production to about fifteen bushels per acre, simply 
through the continual growing of wheat on the same land. 
The Minnesota Experiment Station has showTi that a 
good rotation is as important in the production of spring 
wheat as in that of the winter wheat, and it is evident that 
the days of the great bonanza wheat farms must soon be 
passed and the farmers must go to farming instead of 
merely sowing wheat. There the crop of Irish potatoes 
will be a very important one as a preceding crop to wheat, 
and the rotation should be one long enough to establish a 
sod for turning for this crop and for corn of the earlier 
flint sorts that can be grown there. 

Seeding to grass with the wheat, the spring wheat 
farmer should mow the land two seasons, feed the hay 
and fodder and probably the corn, too, and return the 
manure to the land for the corn crop, and the following 
spring back to wheat again. But the thoughtful student 
farmer must devise a rotation that suits his particular 
needs, and in this section the flax crop may be of interest 
and must be provided for. In fact, no iron-clad rules 
can be laid down for any section, and what we are advising 
here in regard to farm rotations are merely suggestive and 
for farmers to study out for themselves. 

The requirements of the wheat crop for food in the 
soil will be the same, no matter where the crop is grown 
or whether it is winter or spring wheat. On the virgin 



The Wheat Crop 193 



Fertilizers for soils of the prairies of the Dakotas the 

the Wheat wheat growers have hardly reaHzed the fact 
Crop , , ... -^ , . , . 

that they are rapidly approaching the time 

when they will be confronted with the same need for fer- 

tihzing the soil that the Eastern wheat growers have found. 

In fact, the investigations of the experiment stations in 
that section of the country have shown that the productive 
capacity of the soil has already been greatly decreased by 
the practice of growing wheat continuously, and already 
the winter wheat growers in the Middle States have, 
through better systems of farming, increased the produc- 
tion of wheat on their old lands to more than double the 
crop that the Dakotas average. 

But in the older states there has been one bad effect 
from the work of the experiment stations. These stations 
have studied so much the manurial requirements of the 
soil and the crops grown, and have devised so many for- 
mulas for the mixing of artificial fertilizers suited to various 
crops, that farmers, especially in the Southern States, have 
come to the conclusion that for every crop planted they 
must have a specially devised formula of a fertilizer. 
They have treated commercial fertilizers simply as a 
means for increasing the immediate crop to which they 
are applied, instead of showing how the productiveness of 
the soil may be maintained and increased through a 
proper use of some of the forms of concentrated plant 
food known as commercial fertilizers, and the farmer be 
saved from buying what he does not need to buy. 

We have for many years been trying to impress upon 
the wheat farmers and the cotton farmers the fact that 
where the farm is worked in a short rotation, and legume 



194 P met lea/ fuirmlni:; 

crops arc brought in frc((uenlly on the land, fed to stock 
and the manure carefully saved and returned to the soil, 
the farmer never needs to buy nitrogen or ammonia in any 
form, since the legume crops will give all the nitrogen the 
succeeding crop of small grain needs, and that, if then, the 
small grain crop is liberally su])plic(l with phosphoric acid 
and potash, these will be the only fertilizers needed, and 
these will be needed only on the one small-grain crop that 
is the money crop, or on the cotton in the cotton farm. 

In fact, it will often be found that if these forms of i)lant 
food arc given to the preceding legume crop the result on 
the following croj) will often be better than if they had been 
aj)plie(l to the crop itself, while the increased yield of the 
legume crop will not only give an increased amount of 
feed for stock and the making of manure, but will result 
in an increased amount of nitrogen fixing by that crop. 

Since the nitrogen in any complete fertiUzer mixture 
usually costs as much as all the rest, it will be seen that 
double the amount of phosphoric acid and j)otash can be 
bought without any increase of expense, while the result 
in the improvement of the soil will be far greater than 
where the farmer depends on a complete fertilizer merely 
to produce a crop to sell off the land. 

In the southern part of the winter wheat belt the wheat 
should be preceded by a crop of cow peas. If these are 
sown among corn, and wheat follows the corn it will be 
well to chop the whole growth in with the cutaway harrow 
so as to leave the vegetable matter on the surface as much 
as possible. Then, assuming that the previous corn crop 
was planted on crimson clover manured in winter and 
turned under in the spring, there will be an amount of 



The Wheat Crop 105 



nitrogen in the soil that will call for a liberal application 
of phosphoric acid and potash to balance the plant food 
ration, since without this there might be such an excess of 
nitrogen as to cause the straw to be heavy and weak and 
hence the crop will fall and lodge. Under these conditions 
we would use for the wheat an ajjplication of 400 pounds 
I)er acre of acid phosphate and twenty-five pounds of 
muriate of potash. 

If the wheat is grown in the cotton belt, where the chief 
money crop is cotton, it will be well to lengthen the rota- 
tion somewhat, and to put winter oats after the corn, and 
at once, after these arc harvested, to break the land 
and sow cow peas at rate of one bushel per acre, to be 
made into hay for stock feeding, and then prepare the 
pea stubble with the cutaway for wheat. And this crop 
of wheat will be helped more if the same fertilizer is 
used on the peas and not directly on the wheat, and the 
farm will benefit more through the increased crop of 
forage. Then in the same manner this wheat should be 
followed by peas for hay, and the peas by crimson clover 
in the fall to be turned under in spring for the cotton 
crop, among which at last working the crimson clover is 
again sown, and all the farm manure spread on it during 
the winter to be turned for corn again, and the rotation 
repeated. 

Farming in this way the cotton farmer would need to 
buy only the cheaper forms of plant food in acid phos- 
phate and potash, and could at the same cost of a com- 
plete fertihzer give each of the pea crops a liberal dressing 
and then let the peas make the wheat and the cotton, too, 
and that they will do it well has been shown in the ex- 



196 Practical Farming 

periencc of those who have been induced to try a rotation 
for cotton. 

In the great wheat-growing sections of the Middle States 
red clover will be the crop that is manured and turned 
for corn, and the wheat should follow the corn, the land 
being prepared with the cutaway and not rcplowed and 
the same fertilizer mixture applied to the wheat. Then 
instead of fifteen to twenty bushels of wheat per acre, the 
farmer would soon fmd that forty bushels can easily be 
made in a favorable season. 

This would eliminate the oats crop preceding wheat 
which is a common practice in Pennsylvania. Two small- 
grain crops succeeding each other will never result in large 
crops of wheat, and where the wheat is the money crop 
the oats crop should be eliminated or confined to the 
shock rows where the corn stood at wheat seeding time, 
where enough oats for the use of the farm can be pro- 
duced. 

What wc are trying to show to the student is that the 
great deficiency of most of our old soils is in phosphoric 
acid especially and in most of them in potash, too, and 
that if these are liberally supplied and the legume crops 
used as they should be, the fertility of the soil can be in- 
creased and the crops increased without buying nitrogen 
in any form, and that through the growing of these legume 
crops, and the making of liberal supphes of forage the 
farmer will not need to buy any artificial fertilizer for his 
com or other hoed crops. 

In fact, it has been shown in our own experiments and 
in those made at experiment stations in various states, 
that a complete commercial mixture of fertilizers never 



The Wheat Crop 197 

pays a profit on the corn crop. The appHcation will, of 
course, increase the crop, but where a comparison is made 
with a plot left without the fertilizer it will be found that 
the increase has not paid the cost of the fertilizer used. 

The com crop is the one in all of our rotations that can 
make the most profitable use of the sod and the home- 
made manure, and with these the com crop makes the best 
of all summer fallows for wheat. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE OATS CROP 

AS a market crop in most sections of the country the 
/ \ oats crop is of minor importance. In the Middle 
X JL and Northern States and the Pacific Northwest 
oats are always a spring-sown crop, while in the South, 
from central Virginia, southward, fall-sown varieties are 
the only oats that make a crop that will come up to the 
market standard in weight. Spring oats, even in the 
southern parts of the Middle States seldom reach the 
perfection that they do further north. 

The varieties of oats used for fall sowing in the South 
are few in number. The two varieties, the Texas Red 
Rust Proof and the Virginia Gray Winter Turf oats, 
being almost exclusively the varieties used. These are 
far more hardy than the spring oats sown in the North, 
and even for spring sowing in the South these hardy sorts 
are better than the northern spring oats. 

The fall oats are better suited to the sandy coast lands 
of the cotton belt of the South than wheat is, and in these 
sections they should take the place of wheat in the rota- 
tion, while in the Piedmont country of the cotton belt they 
can be used as we have before suggested, as a crop to fol- 
low com and to be followed by peas for a preparation 
for wheat. 

As a rule, the winter oats are sown too late all over the 
South. Early September is the time for sowing fall oats, 



The Oats Crop 199 



and by this time in all parts of the South the com crop 

should have been cut and shocked and the land ready to 

be prepared with the cutaway to chop up the pea vines 

that should have been sown in the com at last working. 

Oats need more nitrogen than the wheat 

Manunal crop, but sown after a manured crop of 

Needs of the ^' . , . , , , , 

Oats Crop ^^^*^ ^^ which peas have been sown, there 

will be no more need for buying nitrogen 

than there will be for the wheat crop, and in fact after a 

manured com crop, oats that are to be followed by peas, 

and the peas fertilized with the appUcation of 400 pounds 

of acid phosphate and twenty-five pounds of muriate of 

potash per acre as a preparation for wheat, will not need 

any fertilizer at all. 

Grown in this way, the oats have produced in the South 
crops of fifty to seventy-five bushels per acre, and when 
followed by a fertilized crop of peas they make, with the 
crop of pea hay, a very valuable money crop to help out 
the cotton crop and to enable the cotton farmer to get on 
a cash basis. 

In mentioning the varieties of winter oats we should 
have said that recently there has been introduced a variety 
known as the Appier oats which has been found more 
productive than the old varieties grown. It would be 
easy, however, for the progressive farmer to improve any 
variety by simply using the fanning mill effectively to blow 
out all light grain and to use only the heavier oats as seed. 
The varieties of oats sown in spring are 
Q^^g almost innumerable, and we will not at- 

tempt to detail the series. Every year the 
enterprising seedsmen bring out new sorts that are claimed 



200 Practical Farming 

to be great advances on the older ones. But, as we have 
said in regard to the winter oats, the progressive farmer 
may take any good variety and greatly improve it for his 
own use by thoroughly eliminating the light grain and 
sowing only the heavy and plum oats. 

Oats arc usually the first grain crop sown, and it is im- 
portant that they should be sown early, for later sown 
oats are apt to suffer from the advancing heat of the 
summer. But in their anxiety to get oats in early, many 
farmers do serious damage to their land by plowing it 
when too wet. The land is then cloddy for the whole 
season and when, as is common in some sections, the 
wheat crop follows on the oats stubble, it is impossible 
to get the land into that fine and well-compacted condition 
that the wheat crop demands. Better be a httle late than 
plow wet soil. If the preceding crop of com was well 
prepared and properly cultivated, there will be no need 
for replowing it in the spring for the oats crop. In fact, 
it will be far better to use the cutaway harrow only, but 
to use it thoroughly till the surface is fine. This can be 
done more rapidly than by replowing, so that the farmer 
need not rush into wet land for the crop. Then sow two 
bushels per acre with the grain drill, a disk drill working 
much better on the corn stubble than a hoe drill. 

Over a large portion of the Middle States 

Oats and ^]^^ ^^ ^^ Canada peas and oats can well 

Canada Peas 

for Storage ^^^^ ^^^ place of the Southern cow pea as a 

forage crop. By sowning two bushels of 

oats and one of peas the oats will sustain the pea vines, and 

the whole crop cut when the oats are passing out of the 

milky stage will make a valuable feed and one that is be- 



The Oats Crop 201 



coming more and more appreciated in the North. The 
Canada peas, however, are very uncertain south of central 
Pennsylvania, and on the southern tier of counties in that 
State the Southern cow pea will be a better forage crop. 
Through its inteUigent use the soil may be restored to a 
condition in which clover will thrive, which is a desir- 
able end to attain, since in all parts of the country there is 
a growing difficulty in getting clover to thrive. On the 
crop of Canada peas and oats the fertilizer mixture 
advised heretofore of acid phosphate and potash will be 
found profitable in increasing the yield of forage and in 
getting a better preparation for the wheat crop that fol- 
lows in many sections. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE COTTON CROP 

THE cotton crop is the chief of all the export crops 
from the United States. It is the one crop that 
keeps the balance of exchange in favor of this 
country, and is the one crop in the world of which we 
have the practical monopoly. Other countries have tried in 
vain to produce cotton on a scale suflEicient to compete 
with this country. And yet there is no crop grown in this 
country the cultivation of which has felt the march of 
improvement so Httle as the cotton crop. Its continuous 
cultivation on the same land, year after year, by the aid 
of commercial fertilizers has led to the exhaustion of the 
soil over large areas, the washing of the clean cultivated 
lands into hideous gulHes, and the hopeless ruin of thou- 
sands of acres of fertile uplands in the South. 

It was long assumed that while a rotation of crops was 
all right for the grain-growing sections North and West, 
the cotton crop was the one crop that would not fit into a 
systematic rotation. The fact is that there is no crop 
grown that so readily responds to a good rotation of 
crops, and none with which good systematic farming will 
give better returns to the cultivator. With the system at 
present used in most parts of the cotton belt the crop is 
grown at too large an expenditure of human labor and too 



The Cotton Crop 203 



little of improved machinery that would replace the costly 
human labor with that of the horse or mule. 

As an example of the present method, we recently saw 
in a cotton field six men, each with a single mule and a 
plow, going through the rows cultivating the crop. Each 
man had to go twice in a row. Three men each with two 
mules on a riding cultivator would complete the cultiva- 
tion of a row with one passing through, and hence three 
men would have done, and done better, twice as much 
work as the six were doing. 

The cotton crop needs to-day to be brought into the 

modern methods of cultivation, and it could thus be 

grown at less than half the cost that its cultivation demands 

in the present method. 

The improving farmer in the cotton belt 

Rotation must be, Hke the improving farmer in the 

Suited to the . , , •, r 1,1.^1 

Cotton Crop g^^^^ b^^^' ^ legume farmer, only that the 

legumes he uses will differ to some extent 
from those used in the North. All over the cotton belt 
the great forage legume and soil improver is the cow pea. 
In the best cotton-growing sections, the coastal plain of 
the South Atlantic and Gulf States, red clover, the great 
legume of the Middle and Northern States does not flour- 
ish, and the cow pea becomes the clover of the South. 
With it the Southern cotton grower can do all for his soil 
that the farmer of the North can do with clover, and can 
do it in one-fourth or less time. 

The great lack of Southern soils is humus or organic 
decay. The long and clean cultivation of cotton has 
almost cleaned the older soils of this important part of a 
fertile soil, and its restoration is the most important 



204 Practical Farming 

part of the work of the improving farmer in the cotton 
belt. 

Another great lack is the almost entire neglect of live- 
stock husbandry. The entire devotion to cotton, and 
the lack of forage crops, made it impracticable to feed 
stock to any extent, and the first care of the improving 
farmer should be to cure this defect in the farming of 
the cotton belt. Live-stock husbandry necessarily in- 
volves the cultivation of forage crops, and the forage crop 
best suited to the feeding of stock is the crop also best 
suited to the improvement of the soil, the cow pea. There- 
fore, any system of farming in the cotton belt that ignores 
the growing of forage crops and the feeding of live stock 
is a vicious and unprofitable system. 

The devotion to the single crop of cotton has developed 
the credit system to an extent unknown in the North. 
The farmer depends on the cotton for everything else, 
for food for his stock and his family, and even for the mules 
that cultivate the crop, and getting all these on credit, de- 
pending on the coming crop, he pays exorbitant prices 
for all that he gets, and this vicious system of credit still 
further increases the cost of the crop that is already costly 
because of the laborious methods of cultivation. 

The system of rotation that should be used on a cotton 
farm will depend to some extent on the section in which 
the grower fives. A rotation that is best suited to the 
needs of the crop on the level sandy soils of the coastal 
plain, and the methods of fertilization there, will differ 
to some extent from those best suited to the rolling up- 
lands of the Piedmont country, the red clay soils of the 
South. 



The Cotton Crop 205 



Cotton Should Years ago many of the more thoughtful 

Always Follow farmers in the South came to the conclu- 

a Legume . , , , . . r 

(-.j-Q sion that the cultivation of cotton, year 

after year, on the same land was injurious, 

and they adopted the plan of what they termed "resting" 

the land. That is, they allowed the field on alternate 

years to lie fallow and grow up in weeds and grass. Of 

course, this was better than cultivating it continuously, 

for it did restore some organic matter to the soil. But 

the reason given, that the soil gets tired and needs rest 

was the fundamental error. 

The soil is a great chemical laboratory in which con- 
stant changes and new combinations are going on. Crops 
get tired of continually living on their own decay and food 
elements needed by the crop become deficient, and must 
be supplied in some way. The most expensive way to 
supply them is through the purchase on credit prices of 
the complete commercial fertilizers. The cheapest way 
is to supply the most costly element, the nitrogen, through 
the agency of the crop that will enable the farmer to feed 
stock and make manure, and through having money com- 
ing in at different seasons of the year, to get on a cash 
basis. 

The rotation then that is best suited to the level sandy 
soils of the coastal plain should be one that contains the 
auxilliary crops not only best suited to the soil and cli- 
mate, but best suited to increase the productiveness 
of the soil in the staple crop. We will suggest one that 
has worked well in that part of the cotton belt. 

For this section of the cotton belt, where, as a rule, the 
soil and climate are not well suited to wheat, the best 



200 Practical Farming 

Cotton i\)lation is a Ihrcc-ycar one. Beginning 

Rotation on ^^,j^j^ ^j^^, ^^^^ ^,|^j^}^ ^j^^^^j^^ ^^^ ^,^j^j_ 

the South , , „ 

Atlantic Coast ^'^t*-'*^' 'I'l^ ^n"'^! sliallovv, as we have shown 
Plain in treating of this crop, just before the 

last cuUivation sow one bushel of cow 
peas i)er acre among the corn and work them in with the 
last cullivalion. As soon as the corn is well glazed, and 
while the fodder is still good, cut it and shock for curing. 
Then, if the peas are heavy, mow them for hay, and chsk 
the land well and sow a bushel and a lialf of winter oats 
per acre with a disk drill. As soon as the corn shocks can 
be removed from the rows where they stand for curing, 
prepare and sow the shock rows also. 

When the oats are harvested remove them from the 
land and store or stack for threshing, and break the land 
well and harrow in 300 pounds of acid phosphate and 
fifty pounds of the muriate of potash per acre, and sow 
one bushel to one and a half of cow peas per acre. When 
these are w^dl podded and the pods turning yellow, mow . 
them and cure for hay, and on the stubble sow in Sep- 
tember iifteen i)ounds of crimson clover seed per acre 
without any further preparation of the land. 

During the winter get out and spread, preferably with 
a manure-spreader, all the home-made manure on this 
clover, and by the first of April there will be a fine growth 
and usually in bloom. Turn this all under deeply and 
prepare the land for cotton perfectly level. Having two 
legume crops preceding it, the cotton will not need any 
nitrogenous manure, especially if much manure is apphed. 
But it will fruit all the better with an application of 400 
pounds of acid phosphate and twenty-five pounds of 



The CoUon Crop 207 



muriate of potash per acre, all spread broadcast and har- 
rowed in before j)lanling the cotton. In this way the land 
will all be uniformly fertilized alike, and as the cotton 
roots run far and wide they will always fmd fresh food. 

Instead of the old style of putting fertilizer 

The Cultiva- j^^ furrows and then bedding on it, and plant- 

tion of the . , i i i i i 

Cotton Crop ^^^ ^'^ ^'"^^ elevated bed, the modern cotton 

cultivation demands perfectly level ]>reixi- 
ration and planting on the level, to be followed by shallow 
and level cultivation as advised for the corn crop. The 
distance between the rows will vary with the fertility of 
the soil. Ordinarily, on thin sandy soils the practice has 
been to make the rows three feet ay)art and then chop out 
to about a foot. But on highly improved land, where the 
plant grows larger, it will be necessary to give it more 
room, and it will be found that four feet between the 
rows and two feet in the row is none too far apart. 

The first cultivation should be with the weeder, running 
lightly crosswise the rows to break any crust that may 
form before the plants appear, and at the same time to 
destroy the weeds that are germinating. Then, when the 
plants are well above ground, go over crosswise again with 
the weeder. This, of course, will tear up many plants, 
but no more than should come out in any event, and the 
crust about the young plants will be completely broken, 
so that they will not be chafed by the wind and made 
"sore shinned" as often happens with the old method of 
cultivation. Now, start the two-horse riding cultivator 
which works both sides of a row at one passing, and has 
small shovels that merely stir the soil without throwing 
a furrow of any size. All subsequent cultivation should 



208 Practical Farming 

be done with this implement, and a large part of the human 
labor that has usually been appHed to the crop will be 
saved. We have frequently seen six men, each with a 
mule and plow, working in a cotton field, and each one 
going twice in a row. Three men, each with a pair of 
mules and a riding cultivator would do twice as much 
work in the same time as the six do in the old style way. 
There is nothing that the cotton growers need to learn 
more than the economy of human labor and the use of 
improved implements and horse power. 

At the last cultivation of the cotton, and while the land 
is still freshly stirred, sow fifteen pounds per acre of 
crimson clover among the cotton as a winter cover for the 
land and a preparation for the corn crop. Then, after a 
couple of rounds of the rotation, and the soil getting into 
better heart, instead of applying the home-made manure 
in the winter preceding the cotton crop, apply it on this 
seeding of clover that is to be turned for corn, for a con- 
tinued application of manure in connection with two 
legume crops will tend to make the cotton grow too rank, 
and as it is termed make too much "weed." But the corn 
crop can use to better advantage the coarse manure of the 
barnyard, and in the cultivation of the corn crop it will get 
so assimilated with the soil that it will give a far better 
chance to the oats crop that follows. 

Therefore, finally, the rotation will be corn with peas 
among it, oats followed by peas after harvest and these by 
crimson clover, cotton, with crimson clover sown among 
it, on which all the manure is to be spread in preparation 
for com, and the clover turned under in bloom for the 
corn crop, and the rotation repeated. 



The Cotton Crop 209 

If all the cotton farmers in the sandy soils of the coast 
section were working their land in this way, and were 
feeding all the pea hay and corn fodder, crops of two 
bales of cotton per acre would soon be common. 

In all the red clay uplands of the South, 
Rotation for wheat should have a place in the cotton ro- 
p. . . tation, since in these lands, when well 

Uplands improved, as large wheat crops can be 

produced as in any part of the country. 
Then, too, in these lands the rotation should be somewhat 
longer than in the level lands of the coast plain, so that 
clean hoed crops do not so often come on the hill lands 
that are inclined to wash. 

The hill lands of the South, as well as the coast lands, 
should always have a winter-growing crop on them, and 
should never be left bare in winter, since there is always 
some formation of soluble nitrates, which, in the ab- 
sence of a growing crop will be washed out by the winter 
rains and lost. With a green winter cover crop, even if it 
is only rye, these nitrates will be taken up and can be 
restored to the soil by plowing under the cover crop in 
preparation for a spring planted crop, thus saving possible 
loss and adding humus-making material to the soil. 

In fact, in any rotation that may be devised, this res- 
toration of the humus-making material should never be 
lost sight of, for, as we have heretofore seen, it is the 
great lack of the Southern upland soils. What the red 
clay hills need also is deep plowing and subsoiling to pre- 
vent the tendency to wash into gullies by furnishing a 
deeper bed of loose soil to retain the water. Deep break- 
ing, and level and shallow cultivation of the hoed crops 



210 Practical Farming 

will do far more to prevent the washing of the red clay 
hills than all the terrace banks that were ever constructed. 

The constant addition of humus-making material will 
also have a great influence in preventing the washing. 
These uplands did not wash when newly cleared from the 
forest, and only became liable to destructive washing after 
the humus had been worn out and the soil baked and ran 
together after a rain. 

Of course, all plowing on these hills should be on the 
level contour of the hill, but every effort should be made 
to avoid the making of deep furrows to catch water and 
form a head to break over and start a gully. The ridging 
up of the crops of cotton and corn in the last cultivation of 
a season has been responsible for a great many of the gul- 
lies that now damage the Southern hills. These furrov/s 
between the rows soon fill with water in a heavy rain, and 
one after another breaks over adding more and more vol- 
ume, till a torrent rushes down the hill and a gully is 
started. If the plow is rigidly kept out of the cotton crop, 
and level and shallow cultivation is adopted, the water 
will be spread out and will be more largely retained as is 
needed instead of running off and making gullies and 
leaving the land dryer in the drought. 

While a good rotation is important, the proper cultiva- 
tion of the cotton crop is equally important when the 
future well-being of the land is considered. The best ro- 
tation will avail little if the cultivation of the hoed crops 
is bad and the land is allowed to lose its fertility by wash- 
ing in winter and summer also. 

The following rotation will be found a good one for the 
upland sections: Corn, with peas sown among it; winter 



The Cotton Crop 211 

oats, followed by peas after harvest and stubble prepared 
for wheat; peas to follow wheat and mown for hay, and 
crimson clover sown on the stubble, and then the clover 
turned for cotton among which at last working the crimson 
clover is again sown, and then back to corn. This will 
make a four-year rotation in which the legumes come in 
every year. 

Beginning with corn, properly bred for closer planting, 
on a clover sod that has received during the fall and winter 
all the manure made from feeding the pea hay and com 
stover, we will sow just before the last level cultivation, 
one bushel of cow peas per acre. The corn will be cut 
and shocked to cure and the stover shredded for feeding. 
The corn stubble and peas will be thoroughly chopped up 
with the cutaway harrow, and oats sown in open furrows 
as a winter protection, and after the shocks of corn are 
removed the shock rows also sown in oats. The oats can 
be allowed to ripen and be harvested as grain or can be 
cut green and used as hay, and the land at once plowed 
thoroughly and a liberal amount of the mixture of acid 
phosphate and muriate of potash mixed five parts of the 
first to one of the latter, well harrowed in and one to one 
and a half bushels of peas sown. 

These are to be harvested and cured for hay in Sep- 
tember or October, and the pea stubble at once disked 
thoroughly and made as fine as possible without replow- 
ing, and wheat sown after the first white frost, using five 
to six pecks per acre, gradually reducing the amount of 
seed as the soil increases in fertility. 

Following this crop of wheat, plow and prepare the land 
again for peas and harrow in 300 pounds per acre of the 



212 Practical Farming 

phosphate and potash mixture. These peas are also to be 
saved for hay, and crimson clover seed at rate of fifteen 
pounds per acre sown on the stubble in September or 
October. 

This clover is to be turned under in the spring and the 
land prepared as we have suggested for cotton. At the 
last working of the cotton, and while the soil is still fresh, 
sow again the same amount of crimson clover seed. 

On this clover haul out and spread with a manure- 
spreader, all the manurial accumulations during the fall 
and winter and up to the time for turning the clover for 
corn. Then plant corn and repeat the rotation. It is 
easy to see that by this rotation we are constantly adding 
some humus-making material in the pea stubble and 
clover turned under, and also in the manure applied. 

It will be noted that we advise the use of commercial 
fertihzers only on the peas, and only the mineral elements 
phosphorus and potassium, since on the success of the pea 
crop the future improvement of the soil largely depends. 
With the constant succession of peas and clover, aided 
by the manure that is made from feeding the peas and 
corn stover, no nitrogenous fertihzers will be needed to 
be bought. 

But the cotton farmer has another source of nitrogen in 
the seed produced by the cotton crop. He should not sell 
the seed off the land entirely, but if near an oil mill should 
exchange the seed for a fair proportion of meal and hulls. 
The meal, fed in moderate quantity to balance the ration 
fed to the cattle will greatly improve the character of the 
manure made, and all that cannot be used in this way 
should be returned to the soil to aid the manure in the 



The Cotton Crop 213 

production of the corn crop. If the peas that follow the 
wheat are heavily fertihzed with acid phosphate and pot- 
ash the cotton that follows them can be produced without 
direct fertilizer appHcation, though in the earher rounds 
of the rotation it will pay for a time to use some acid phos- 
phate and potash on the cotton also, if spread broadcast. 
But, finally, if stock enough are kept to consume all the 
roughage, such as pea hay, cotton-seed hulls, and corn 
stover, it will be found that it is only necessary to fertiUze 
the peas. 

Then, as the humus increases in the soil, and it becomes 
more retentive of moisture, it will be found that the phos- 
phate and potash can be used more liberally, since the 
moisture will dissolve it and the peas will get it. Then it 
will soon be found that the peas will grow too rankly 
among the corn and they may there be omitted so that 
the land can be more easily prepared for the oats crop in 
the fall. The clover and manure turned under for the 
corn will abundantly feed the oats, and the fertilized crop 
of peas following the oats will restore any loss of nitrogen 
that has taken place, so that the wheat will have an 
abundance of plant food. 

Following this practice rigidly, lands that now make 
less than a quarter of a bale per acre can easily be brought 
up to the production of two bales per acre on one-fourth 
the land, or fully as much if not more cotton than is now 
made on the whole area, while the increasing crops of oats 
and wheat will become equally profitable with the cotton, 
and the stock fed on the abundance of food will bring in 
cash at a time when cash is badly needed for the cotton 
crop season, and will thus, through putting the farmer on 



214 Practical Farming 

a cash basis, enable him to grow cotton for one-fourth the 
cost under the old practice of all cotton and a gambling in 
complete fertilizers bought on credit. 

The varieties of cotton that have been 
ane les o produced are almost innumerable. The 
ease with which the cotton plant yields to 
proper selection of seed has led to a great many varieties 
being put into commerce before their character was 
well fixed, and the result has been that most of the im- 
proved varieties have been short lived, and while still 
planted by the original names, they have, through care- 
less selection of seed, been allowed to degenerate into 
something very different from the variety originally sent 
out by the first improver. 

Like the corn crop, the selection of cotton seed has been 
most careless, while intelligent selection will speedily in- 
crease the crop as much as the improvement of the soil 
will. On the northern limit of the cotton belt, just as on 
the northern limit of the corn belt, earliness in the crop 
is of prime importance. Earliness has also become an 
important matter in the far South, where the cotton boll 
weevil has become a menace to the cotton growers. There, 
the cotton must be early to get a crop ahead of the time 
that the weevil is destructive, and on the northern limit 
earliness is important in order to get as large a proportion 
of the crop matured before frost as possible. 

Therefore, in the improvement of cotton, earliness is 
very important, since there is a demand for seed from the 
weevil sections for the seed produced in the northern sec- 
tions of the cotton belt. Hence, every cotton farmer 
should be a seed breeder, and instead of buying seed of 



The Cotton Crop 215 

this, that, or the other variety, let him take the best seed 
at hand and go to work to develop a plant that is suited 
to his conditions. 

There are two general classes of the upland short staple 
cotton, the large and the small boiled. It has been found 
that bolls of extra size are almost invariably associated 
with lateness in the crop, and while the crop may be 
larger in a very favorable season its lateness is a drawback. 
What is especially needed in the upper South, and the 
weevil-infected sections of the lower South, is a cotton 
plant of a compact habit, bearing bolls about two inches 
apart on the stems, and hence a very short-jointed variety. 
Bearing bolls in pairs or twins may increase the yield, but is 
usually accompanied by very short staple, and the increase 
in length of staple is one desirable character to introduce. 

The Department of Agriculture at Washington has for 
years had expert plant breeders at work on the cotton 
crop, and it would be well for intelligent breeders to get 
home of the Department's improved seed to start with. 
Then plant a seed patch, and keep ever in mind through 
the season the ideal cotton plant you wish to produce, 
and from the patch eliminate all inferior plants and select 
seed only from the plants that come nearest to your ideal 
both in habit and earliness. 

Then, instead of taking this cotton to the general gin- 
nery have a small hand gin for the seed crop and you will 
then be sure to get no mixture. Plant your crop with the 
selected seed, and also plant another seed patch, always 
looking toward the ideal plant and saving seed only from 
the earliest ripening bolls, throwing all the rest into the 
general crop. 



216 Practical Farming 

By following this practice, year after year, the fanner 
will soon have a variety suited to his conditions, and not 
only this, but he will have a demand for the seed, for the 
men who will take the proper care in the selection of seed 
of any plant are always in the minority and the majority 
of growers will always be looking for improved varieties 
rather than improving them themselves. 

We therefore do not give a list of the varieties on the 
market though so far as we have observed the variety 
known as the King cotton has generally proved to be an 
early and good variety. In addition to the selection of 
the ideal plant it is well to select especially for the seed 
patch the longest stapled bolls every year. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE TOBACCO CROP 

THERE is no crop grown which varies so much in 
character and quaUty in various soils and under 
various cHmatic conditions as tobacco. This 
fact has become so well known that growers have found 
that in their sections only certain kinds can be grown, 
and hence they have adhered to the kinds that are best 
produced in their soil and climate. Therefore, in the 
treatment of the culture of tobacco we will take up the 
different sorts that are produced in this country separately. 
It has become the almost universal prac- 
th° Pit ^^^^ ^^^^ tobacco growers in all parts of the 

country to prepare their beds for the growing 
of the plants by selecting a piece of land near the forest 
that is purely virgin soil, and that is sheltered from the 
colder winds. A sunny southern exposure is preferred so 
that the plants may be brought forward as early as practi- 
cable. The soil should be one that is well darkened by an 
abundance of humus or vegetable decay, the dark color of 
which renders it more absorbent of heat and also retentive 
of moisture. All growth is cleared from the land and the 
roots grubbed out. Brush and fire wood are then piled 
over the spot and fired long enough to bum the upper 
layer of the soil to a reddish-brown color, and to entirely 
destroy the seeds of grass and weeds that may be in it. 

217 



218 Practical Farming 

The soil is then deeply dug and made perfectly fine, work- 
ing the ashes well into the general mass. Beds of con- 
venient width are then marked out and a fertilizer high 
in nitrogen and potash is intimately mixed with the soil. 

A heaping tablespoonful of seed is well mixed with plas- 
ter to enable the sower to distribute it more evenly, and 
that amount of seed will sow loo square yards of bed. 
Boards are set on edge around the beds and cotton cloth 
stretched over as a protection. 

The burning is done at any time in the latter part of the 
winter and seed are sown in late February or early 
March in the central part of the country and even as 
early as late January in the South. The sowing should 
be done with great care so as not to get the seed too thick 
and have the plants grow up crowded. 

The above method is that generally prac- 

Better Way ^[^^^ \^^^ jj^ q^j. q^^^ experience and in the 
to Grow the '. . , ^, , , 

Plants experience of many who have recently been 

led to try it, it has been found that the 

use of glass hot-bed sashes and regular frames pays 

well in the production of better plants and greater safety 

from the changes of the spring weather. In this way, 

the soil is burned over in the same way as described, 

and a portable frame is set on the beds that is about six 

feet wide so as to accommodate the sashes which are 

three feet by six feet. The use of cloth is not only less 

of a protection to the plants than the glass, but it results 

in getting the plants drawn up slender by reason of the 

shade, while under the glass sashes the plants have the 

full sunshine, and can be easily exposed to the weather in 

bright days or when warm rains occur, by sliding the 



The Tobacco Crop 219 

sashes down. The full exposure to the light results in 
stout and stocky plants that live far better when trans- 
planted than the weakly and slender plants that are often 
the result of keeping the cloth over the beds too closely. 

Another advantage in the sash-covered frames is that 
the sowing need not be done so early, for with the aid of 
the glass the plants can be brought on as soon as it is 
safe to set them out by sowing the seed the middle of 
March or even later. 

The same care should be taken in the sowing of the seed 
not to get them too thick so that the plants will be crowded. 
Our practice has been to sow in rows crosswise the frames 
about six inches apart, making very shallow furrows for 
the purpose, and beating the soil down smooth with the 
back of a shovel. In the rows it can soon be seen whether 
the plants are coming too thickly, and they can be thinned 
at an early stage of growth as soon as a fair stand is se- 
cured. We usually thinned to about two or three inches 
apart and always had fine stocky plants at an earlier date 
than those who used the old method. 

After long and careful experimentation 
f T b ^^ have found that the chief manurial needs 

of the tobacco crop are for nitrogen and 
potash, and phosphoric acid in smaller percentage than 
manufacturers of fertilizers usually use. The source from 
which the fertilizing elements arc secured is also of more 
importance to tobacco than any other crop grown. While 
the crop demands a liberal amount of potash to be avail- 
able in the soil its quality is very much impaired if the 
potash is applied in the form of a muriate or chloride. 
Hence, in compounding a fertilizer for tobacco the potash 



220 Practical Farming 

should always be in the form of a high-grade sulphate. 
While the potash in the crude form of kainit is a sulphate 
it is associated with such a large percentage of salt that 
it acts as a chloride. Hence, only the high-grade sul- 
phate that is comparatively free from chlorides should be 
used in the preparation of a tobacco fertihzer. 

Of course, the amount of a fertilizer to be used will de- 
pend very largely on the fertility of the soil, but the pro- 
portions of the materials will be the same in any event. 
We have seen a formula proposed for tobacco growers 
which contains 8 per cent, of phosphoric acid, 2 per cent, 
of ammonia, and 10 per cent, of potash. This is a badly 
constructed formula, for while the percentage of potash is 
all right the percentages of phosphoric acid and ammonia 
are wrong. Two per cent, of ammonia would be a very 
small percentage of nitrogen, since ammonia is a hydride 
of nitrogen. The nitrogen should appear as nitrogen 
and not as ammonia, for we want the actual amount of 
nitrogen rather than that of ammonia to be stated. Then 
the percentage of phosphoric acid is too high. The effect 
of an excess of phosphoric acid in a tobacco fertilizer will 
be shown in what the growers call a "bony" leaf. The 
plant needs nitrogen to some extent in the immediately 
available form of a nitrate to start it off early, and the 
greater part in the form of organic nitrogen to keep up 
the growth by becoming available during the growth of 
the crop. 

The following formula is the result of long and pa- 
tiently investigated experiments, and in practice in the 
bright cigarette types of tobacco, has proved to produce 
the highest priced tobacco of the season: 



The Tobacco Crop 221 

Acid Phosphate 900 pounds 

Nitrate of Soda 100 pounds 

Dried Blood 600 pounds 

High Grade Sulphate of Potash 400 pounds 

This will make a ton of 2,000 pounds. On the best 
light soil of the bright tobacco belt in North Carolina this 
formula has been used with great success at the rate of 700 
pounds per acre. The same formula, used to this amount 
in the dark and moist soil of the coast plain section of 
North Carolina resulted in too rank and heavy a growth. 
Therefore, as we have said, the amount of the fertilizer 
to be applied will depend on the natural fertility of the 
soil. 

In the strong soils of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 
for instance, 700 pounds of this mixture would be entirely 
needless, while the proportions of the ingredients will be 
all right for the best quahty of their seed tobacco if used 
in smaller amount. 

Freshly cleared land in any section or for 
Tobacco ^^y ^\nA of tobacco is to be preferred to old 

manured soils. This simply means that hu- 
mus is favorable to the production of fine crops. With a 
proper rotation of crops on the old soils and the use of 
legumes therein the new ground conditions can be brought 
about in the oldest soils. In the bright tobacco sections of 
North Carolina there is a prejudice among the tobacco 
growers against the use of clover and cow peas in a rota- 
tion for tobacco, the growers claiming that the legumes 
injure the peculiar color and quality of their leaf. This 
has usually been brought about by neglecting to observe 
the influence of the legume crop on the soil. The nitrogen 



222 Practical Farming 

content has been largely increased. Then, following this 
increase, the grower uses as large a percentage of nitrogen 
as he did without it and finds that his tobacco grows 
too rank and late. Following a crop of peas or clover, the 
bright tobacco grower will need far less of the organic 
nitrogen in the form of dried blood, since the legume will 
furnish that, and he simply needs the nitrate, with the 
same proportions of the mineral elements as before. In 
the bright yellow tobacco sections in North and South 
Carohna it has been found that this type of tobacco can 
only be grown successfully on a gray and somewhat 
sandy soil. A red clay soil changes the character of the 
leaf and darkens the color, and the tobacco either becomes 
a mahogany, well suited for making plug tobacco, or a still 
darker shipping tobacco. 

In fact, there is no crop grown in this country the char- 
acter of which is so controlled by the soil conditions as 
tobacco. Therefore, the different types of tobacco are 
being grown in the soils and sections that have been found 
by experience to be best suited to them. In the strong 
mellow loam soil of southern Pennsylvania a fairly good 
quality of cigar leaf is grown. In Ohio the tobacco known 
as the Zimmer Spanish is grown and used as filler for 
cigars. On the limestone soils of Kentucky the White 
Burley has become the sole type grown, and is mainly 
shipped abroad as is also the tobacco of the greater part 
of Virginia and Maryland, though in a limited section of 
Virginia a very fine black wrapper tobacco is grown and 
used for the making of what is known as Navy Plug. 

In Connecticut the seed leaf tobacco has become fa- 
mous as cigar wrappers and until the introduction of the 



The Tobacco Crop 223 

Sumatra tobacco was the chief source of the wrappers for 
domestic cigars. Of late there have been some experi- 
ments made in growing the Sumatra tobacco in Connecti- 
cut under shelters of cotton cloth. But thus far they have 
not been very successful. In Florida the culture of the 
Sumatra under cloth has been more successful, and a 
very good quality of cigar wrappers is produced. And 
in Texas in a Hmited section it is believed that the tobacco 
of Cuba can be grown to the same quality and character 
as in Cuba itself. 

For this class of tobacco a strong friable 
Preparation clay loam is best suited. The best prepara- 
o e 01 or ^j^^ £^j. ^Y^^ ^^^p j^ ^^ grow a crop of clover 

ping Tobacco o^" COW peas on the land the previous season. 
Turn this late in the fall and sow rye on the 
land, to be in its turn plowed down in the early spring 
after having served its purpose as a winter cover to pre- 
vent loss of nitrates from the soil. If stable manure is to 
be had, give the land a good dressing during the winter 
on the rye to be turned under with it. Otherwise use the 
fertilizer formula already given, at rate of 500 to 700 pounds 
per acre, broadcast. The fall plowing is useful, not only 
for the decay of the vegetable matter plowed under, but 
also for the destruction of the cut worms that are apt to 
infest a clover sod. The rye is to be turned under as 
early in March as is practicable, and the land put into fine 
tilth with the cutaway harrow and the smoothing harrow. 
Potash being a very important thing in the feeding of 
the crop of tobacco, all the accumulation of wood ashes 
can be profitably added to the land in the fmal prepara- 
tion. A part of the fertilizer can profitably be reserved 



224 Practical Farming 

for use in the hills at planting time. One hundred and 
fifty pounds will be sufficient for this purpose. 

The common practice is to check the land 
^ out each way with a small plow and at the 

intersections to apply the fertilizer kept for 
the hills and on it to make with the hoe a broad flat hill, 
mixing the fertilizer well with the soil. If the land is 
newly cleared there will be need of a smaller amount of 
fertihzer broadcast, but with this class of tobacco heavy 
fertilization will always pay well, as well as on the thinner 
soils devoted to the yellow cigarette leaf. The plants are 
set in the dark tobacco districts about the first week in 
May, taking advantage of the moisture in the ground 
after a rain, but never when the land is mucky from too 
heavy a rain. In that case wait till the surplus water has 
had time to soak in or evaporate. One hand can drop 
plants for two setting them, and the implement used is the 
ordinary dibble. Machines have recently come into use 
that enable two rows to be set at once by planters sitting 
on the machine, the machine watering them as set. For 
large plantations these planting machines are great savers 
of labor. 

The modem practice of shallow and flat culture is as 
well adapted to the tobacco crop as to any other, though 

the majority of the growers still adhere to 
The Cultiva- ^j^^ j^^ ^^^ ^lOQ hilHng. As soon as the 
tion of the , ^ ° 

QJ.QP plants are established from the transplanting, 

run the weeder through to loosen the surface 
and to destroy any weeds just germinating. All subse- 
quent cultivation can be best done with a small tooth 
two-horse riding cultivator going in both directions. In 



The Tobacco Crop 225 

this way very little if any hoe work will be needed, and 
in these days of labor scarcity on the farm it is important 
that tobacco growers should learn the greater economy of 
horse labor over that of the human hand. Rapid cultiva- 
tion to break the forming crust after every rain is impor- 
tant, and the two-horse cultivator will enable the grower 
to do this more rapidly and economically than by the old 
method with plow and hoe. But never work the soil when 
land or plants are wet. After the crop develops to a size 
that prevents the use of the cultivator, hand hoeing must 
be resorted too, for there is no crop that demands the 
weeds to be eradicated more completely than tobacco. 

A few leaves next the ground are ' * primed" 
CroD ^^' ^^ ^^ ^^ called, and the ten to a dozen 

leaves above are left and the bud at the top 
of the stem is pinched out. It is not absolutely necessary 
to prime off the lower leaves, but the practice arose from 
the necessity of getting a clear stem for hilling, and hilling 
not being necessary it matters very httle whether the lower 
leaves are pulled or not so long as enough are left above 
them. Pinch the bud at the leaf that hangs directly over 
the second one next the ground. The topping is done to 
throw all the growth into the leaves and to save the growth 
that would be used in the development of the bud and 
flowers. 

After topping, the plants being checked in their upward 
growth, will start the buds in the axils of the leaves. If 

these were allowed to grow it would diminish 
Suckerine ^^^ growth of the leaves on which the crop 

depends. Therefore, suckering, or the re- 
moval of the shoots that appear in the leaf axils before they 



226 Practical Farming 

attain more than an inch or two in length is a very impor- 
tant matter, and must be attended to all through the 
growth of the crop to maturity. The quaUty of the leaf 
depends very largely on the assiduity of the grower in the 
removal of the suckers. 

But the most important matter in the growth of tobacco 
is the fight against the worms, the larvae of the hornblower 
moth. This is one of the largest of our moths, being 
almost as large as the ruby-throat humming bird. It has 
a long proboscis that is kept rolled up like a watch spring 
when not in use, but when in use it enables this moth to 
reach down in the corolla of a deep flower, hke that of 
the tobacco plant, to get nectar. 

This moth lays its eggs on the tobacco leaves, where they 
hatch into a green caterpillar which at once begins Hfe 
and growth by eating the leaves, and if let alone will to 
a great extent destroy the value of the whole crop. Three 
broods of this insect are hatched during the summer, 
though it is commonly supposed there are but two. For- 
merly, tobacco growers in their fight against the pest 
depended on hand picking, running turkeys in the tobacco 
field and on poisoning the moths with cobalt and sweet- 
ened water placed in the corolla of the flower of the Jimson 
weed, or in a painted imitation flower of the same. 

In recent years, however, it has become the common 
practice to spray the plants with Paris green mixed in 
water, one-fourth of a pound of the poison being used to 
a barrel of water and applied with a spraying pump and 
nozzle. This is all right for the early brood of cater- 
pillars, but for the later brood we are of the opinion that 
the poison should not be used, as there may some of it 



The Tobacco Crop 227 

remain on the matured leaf and be dangerous. There- 
fore, we would depend on hand picking and the turkeys 
for the late brood. 

The bright tobacco section was formerly 
The Bright confined to a few counties in the northern 
Yellow pg^j.|- Qjf North Carolina. But in recent years 

jjq^^j^ it has been found that the sandy soils of the 

Carolina coast plain of that State and the upper Pine 

Belt of South Carohna are equally adapted 
to this kind of tobacco. A light sandy soil of a gray color 
is preferred for this class of tobacco, which is used both for 
cigarettes and for making Hght-colored plug tobacco for 
chewing. 

While it is generally admitted that a new soil abounding 
in humus is the ideal tobacco soil, there is a great prejudice 
among the growers of the gold leaf tobacco against im- 
proving the humus content of their soils through the use 
of legume crops such as clover and the cow pea. Many 
growers declare that they cannot grow tobacco of fine 
quality after peas or clover. The main reason has been 
that they forget that the peas and clover have largely 
increased the nitrogen in the soil, and they use the same 
kind of fertilizer high in nitrogen that they have been 
accustomed to use on thinner soil. The result is that the 
tobacco grows too rankly and late and is of a coarser 
character. But a good rotation of crops and the improve- 
ment of the soil by the use of the legumes is fully as im- 
portant to the growers of the gold leaf tobacco as it is to 
those who grow the dark shipping leaf and the White 
Burley. But after the turning under of a large growth of 
cow peas or a sod of clover, some other crop should come 



228 Practical Farming 

in between it and the tobacco crop in order that the vege- 
table matter shall be more completely decomposed and in 
the condition of the natural humus of the new ground 
that they find so useful. 

The tobacco now known as the "White 

The White Burley originated from a selection from the 

Burley 

Tobacco ^^^ Burley, made in Ohio about 1864. It 

is now produced in larger quantity than any 
other variety of tobacco grown in this country. Its cul- 
ture is largely confined to the State of Kentucky, though 
still grown to a great extent in Ohio, the area of culti- 
vation lying on both sides of the Ohio River, and including 
twenty-four counties in Kentucky, three in Ohio, and 
parts of other counties in Kentucky. In brief, it is a 
Blue Grass country tobacco, and is strictly a limestone 
land tobacco. Even there the quality varies greatly, 
the north slopes of the hills producing a heavier crop 
but inferior in quality to the Ughter soils and south 
exposure, while the alluvial bottoms make a coarse 
and "bony" leaf. It is now used very largely as a 
material for plug tobacco, having almost entirely taken 
the place of the Virginia tobacco formerly used for this 
purpose. 

In the culture of White Burley the growers have largely 
abandoned the practice of making hills for the plants, but 
set the plants on the side of the furrow made in marking 
out the land, and then throw earth enough to them as they 
start to grow to make the soil level. Thereafter level cul- 
ture is practiced. In fact there is now little hilling up of 
tobacco except among the growers of the gold leaf in the 
South, who still stick to the practice. 



The Tobacco Crop 229 

The Black In the mountains of the Blue Ridge in 

Tobacco of the Virginia, especially in the county of Nelson, 

Virginia i 

Mountains there is a limited culture of a very dark 

wrapper tobacco that is used for Navy Plug. 
The growers there have a blood-red soil of granitic 
origin and have adopted a three-year rotation for 
their tobacco, using no manure or fertilizer whatever, 
but depending on clover to make the crop. The tobacco 
is followed by wheat on which clover is sown. The clover 
stands one year and is then all turned under for tobacco 
the following season. No crop but wheat, other than 
tobacco, is sold or used from the land devoted to tobacco. 
This turning under every third year of the entire clover 
crop results, of course, in a soil abounding in humus, and 
the crops of wheat and tobacco are, as a consequence, 
very fine. But while the soil is rich in mineral matters, 
especially in potash, from the decomposition of the feld- 
spathic rocks, this practice is rapidly robbing it of the 
phosphorus content, and ere long it will be necessary 
to supply this especially for the wheat crop. So far, the 
practice has resulted well, but the growers should stand 
ready to supply any lack of phosphoric acid and with this 
addition they have a very profitable rotation for the black 
wrappers. 

Under the names of Seed Leaf, Broad Leaf and other 
names, tobacco is grown in the valley of the Connecticut 

and Housatonic Rivers for cigar wrappers. 
Tobacco '^^^ ^°^^ ^^ these valleys makes a fine thin 

wrapper of a mild flavor that is much used 
to wrap cigars having a Havana filler. Experiments 
have of late been made in Connecticut to grow the Su- 



230 Practical Farming 

matra tobacco under cotton cloth covers, and though so 
far the culture has not been profitable the growers still 
have faith in making it so. But the culture of this leaf 
has become so common and profitable in Florida that it is 
probable that the Sumatra wrappers in this country will 
be largely grown there. But many smokers still prefer the 
Connecticut Seed Leaf and the Broad Leaf wrappers to 
the Sumatra. One manufacturer told us that his brands 
of cigars cannot be made with the Sumatra leaf. 

In Ohio a variety known as Zimmer Spanish has come 
into use for mixing with Havana as a filler in the cheaper 
grades of cigars to which it imparts a sweetness that is 
favored by many smokers. 

The methods of harvesting and curing 
Harvesting tobacco vary greatly in the different districts. 
Tobacco -'■^ *^^ bright tobacco of the South Atlantic 

coast section, and in the White Burley sec- 
tion, tobacco is not cut off at the ground as is done in 
Pennsylvania and Connecticut and the North generally, 
but the leaves are pulled separately as they mature and 
are then strung on short sticks for curing by heat in flued 
barns. At the beginning of the harvest four or five of the 
lower and riper leaves are pulled in the morning after the 
dew is off. Some growers string them on the curing sticks 
in the field, while others load in wagons and haul to the 
curing bams where women and girls do the stringing with 
cotton twine and needles, or by using a peculiar turn of 
the twine around each midrib. The barns are commonly 
built of logs, and are much taller than broad. The sticks 
on which the tobacco leaves are strung are arranged on 
cross beams from the top of the house downward, closely, 



The Tobacco Crop 231 

till the barn is full. Sheet iron flues connected with a 
brick furnace — sometimes two — run around the house 
The furnace is fed from the outside, and as soon as the 
barn is filled the fire is started, and the curer stays by it 
night and day till the curing is completed, watching the 
thermometer and the tobacco continually. This flue cur- 
ing is not practiced in the White Burley section but is con- 
fined to the Gold Leaf region, though the harvesting in 
both sections is similar. The degree of heat and the varia- 
tions in temperature are governed by the experience of the 
operator and vary with the kind and condition of the 
tobacco in the house. No attempt to describe the proc- 
ess can by any means make a skillful curer. Practical 
experience under a skilled curer is the only way to learn 
flue-curing. Gathering the leaves instead of cutting the 
whole plant has the advantage that the tobacco is all of a 
uniform maturity, and the different grades and quaHties 
are more easily kept separate and much time is saved in 
the grading and assorting for market. Then the crop is 
cured more safely and in a shorter time, and less barn 
room is needed, as barn after barn can be refilled as the crop 
matures and is cured. The stringing on the curing sticks 
requires some skill, for the leaves must hang face to face 
or back to back, since if strung back to face they will enfold 
in curing and be damaged. In the Gold Leaf district a 
crop of 900 pounds per acre is a fairly good one, while in 
the tobacco section of Pennsylvania and Connecticut 2000 
pounds are often grown, but until recent years the Gold 
Leaf brought the highest price in the country, the farmers 
of late years complaining of the monopoly of the American 
Tobacco Company. 



232 Practical Farming 

Harvesting The curing houses used by the Coiinecti- 

and Curing ^^^ ^^^ Pennsylvania tobacco growers are 

the Seed Leaf 

Tobacco ^^^y different from the rude log houses used 

in the South for flue curing. The curing 
being entirely air curing a proper regard must be 
had to ventilation in the tobacco bam. This is the 
most important matter in air curing. Prolonged dry 
weather is dreaded by the tobacco growers after the crop 
is in the house, for a proper degree of moisture is essential. 
That is, there must be an alternate dampness and drying 
to prevent too rapid a curing by prolonged dry weather. 
On the other hand, too much moisture induces mold, 
while a proper amount is necessary for the complete color- 
ing of the leaf. The tobacco house is made with a series 
of shutters that can be closed or opened, as needed. These 
shutters extend from the ground to the eaves on the sides 
of the house. When there is an excess of moisture in the 
outside air these shutters can be tightly closed. Some use 
horizontal shutters on each tier of plants and prefer them 
to the old style of upright shutters. An abundance of air 
is given when the tobacco is first housed for several weeks, 
care being taken to close when too windy and dry, and 
opening at night to admit the moist night air. Other 
growers keep the ventilators open night and day for two 
weeks after the tobacco has been housed, claiming that 
the moisture of the night air will thus regularly neutrahze 
the effect of the dry day air. This method of curing re- 
quires about twelve weeks. After all signs of green have 
disappeared from stalks and leaves the crop is taken 
down when the weather is so moist that the leaves will be 
soft enough to handle. 



The Tobacco Crop 233 

The leaves are then stripped ojEf and packed in boxes 
lined with paper, under which cords are passed at inter- 
vals. These boxes are a foot deep and wide and three 
feet long. The tobacco is packed on the paper lining 
with the butts of the leaves to the ends of the box and lap- 
ping in the middle. The paper is then folded over the 
top and the strings are tied across loosely. The bundle 
thus formed is then Hfted out and packed in piles with 
other bundles made in the same way. 

The packers buy the tobacco in this shape from the 
growers, the price being determined by the percentage of 
good wrappers in the bundles. The packers sort the 
leaves into first and second class wrappers, binders and 
fillers. In sorting, the leaves are tied into hands of six- 
teen leaves each. These are packed in bulk with the 
butts out and the leaves lapping within on platforms ar- 
ranged for a circulation of air beneath. The bulks are 
four feet wide and as long as desired. The tobacco in 
bulking should be quite moist, and the bulks are made 
about four feet high. It is then covered with blankets 
and weighted down. After remaining in bulk for a short 
time it is ready for boxing. The boxes will average about 
twenty-eight inches wide by three and a half feet long for 
wrappers, and shorter for other grades. The tobacco is 
placed lengthwise in these boxes and enough of pressure 
is applied to make the boxes run from 325 to 375 pounds. 
Loose head boards are used in the ends of the boxes to 
keep the butt an inch from the ends of the box. Pack 
when in medium "case," that is medium state of moisture. 
Lap the tops well and never put any tobacco crosswise the 
box. The boxes are nailed up and placed on their sides 



234 Practical Farming 

and left to ferment and sweat. This begins in June and 
is carried on for several months, and the tobacco often 
reaches a temperature of 150 degrees or more. This 
sweating process is necessary to ripen and bring out the 
full flavor of the tobacco. If kept over to the second 
year it will again ferment and improve in quality. When 
the sweating is completed the end of the box can be opened 
and the samples drawn from different parts to get a fair 
sample of the contents for sale. 

The harvesting and curing of tobacco, it will be now 
seen, varies greatly according to the different characters 
of the crop and the purposes to which it is to be applied. 
The bright yellow gold leaf of the South is very rapidly 
cured and bulked by the growers, sorted by them and put 
on the market by the time the crop of the seed leaf is being 
cut. Hence, the proper curing of the different kinds of 
tobacco is an art that can only be learned by the handling 
of each kind under the instruction of an expert and on the 
spot. 

While a man can, by reading and study, become expert 
in the growing of tobacco, no amount of mere reading and 
study will make an expert curer. He must learn this 
from doing it. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE IRISH POTATO CROP 

IN nearly every section of the country the crop of 
Irish potatoes has become one of the leading farm 
crops, and the production of early potatoes for the 
northern markets has developed into one of the leading 
interests with the southern market gardeners. 

Hence, the main or late crop of potatoes comes into the 
regular crop rotation in the Middle and Northern States, 
while the early crop is interesting mainly to the truckers 
or market gardeners in the South. Therefore, in any 
improving farm crop rotation in the North the potato 
crop can be made one of the leading sources of income 
along with the corn crop. Of the potato crop thus con- 
sidered we will treat later in this chapter. 

In the South, especially in the South 
The Early Atlantic Coast States, from the southern 

Potato Crop in . r -^.r ^ ^ i i 

the South section of Maryland southward to Florida, 
the production of the early potato crop in 
succession as the season moves northward, has become of 
vast importance and the selection of seed and the vari- 
eties best adapted to their use are matters 
The Seed ^j ^^^^^ interest to thousands of growers. 

Potatoes for -r , n i ■, r ■, ■, 

the South ■'-^ the first development of the culture of 

the early potato crop in the South it was 
thought essential that seed potatoes for their planting 
should be grown in the North, and for years there was a 

235 



236 Practical Farming 

discussion as to the respective merits of the potatoes grown 
in New York State and those grown in New England. 
Each had its favorites among the growers, and every win- 
ter the southern-bound steamers were loaded '^with seed 
potatoes to be planted in the South. 

But about twenty-five years ago some of the Norfolk 
growers got to experimenting with the planting of seed 
late in summer from the crop of the same year, and grad- 
ually it was found that good crops for the winter use could 
be grown in this way. The first idea in the production of 
this crop was to obtain potatoes for winter use that would 
keep in that climate, since it had been found impracticable 
to keep the early grown crop. Finally, some one tried 
these late grown potatoes for planting the early crop of 
the following year, and it was found that they possessed 
advantages over the potatoes brought from the North. 

They are dug in early December, and can in that climate 
be easily kept over winter in heaps covered deeply with 
earth, and as they are planted from January to March, 
according to the latitude, they have had no chance to sprout 
and become weakened. The northern potatoes, dug in 
the fall and kept in cellars, sprout more or less in winter 
and have the sprouts rubbed off. This sprouting is a 
deterioration of the food material stored in the potato, and 
as the potato is simply a mass of starchy matter stored 
around a bunch of shoots, the rubbing off of the sprouts 
takes off the terminal bud of the shoot, which is always 
the strongest grower. Then, when these potatoes are 
planted the growth comes from lateral and weaker buds, 
usually making a bunch of shoots rather than one strong 
one from the terminal bud. 



The Irish Potato Crop 237 

On the other hand the late second crop potatoes in the 
South that is dug late in the fall or early winter, keeps 
without any sprouting, and when it grows it is with the 
strong growth of the terminal bud, and with an undimin- 
ished supply of food for the plant. It is hence found 
that the growth of these potatoes is much stronger and 
more robust and can stand untoward spring conditions 
better than the plants from the northern seed. In fact, 
it has been found that a spring frost that will cut to the 
ground the shoots of the northern seed potatoes will but 
slightly scorch the home-grown ones, owing to their stronger 
development. Since these facts have been proven there 
has been a great increase in the production of the second 
crop, and now few growers ever plant the northern-grown 
seed potatoes at all. 

Some years ago, when I, the writer, was Horticulturist 
of the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station, I 
made arrangement for a co-operative test of seed potatoes 
in connection with the Cornell, N. Y., and the Maine 
stations. They were to send me some of their early seed 
potatoes to plant, and from these I was to grow a second 
late crop the same season and send to them for planting 
the following year, while they were to send me more of the 
same stock sent the previous year, to plant alongside of 
my late crop from their seed of the year before. 

The experiment went as far as the second year. I 
planted my seed and alongside planted more of their 
northern seed. The difference was apparent as soon as 
the tops developed. The northern potatoes made a bunch 
of shoots, while mine made a sturdy single shoot from the 
terminal bud and no others grew. The growth of mine 



238 Practical Farming 

was so superior to theirs that I took a photograph of two 
adjoining rows to show it. Then at digging time I piled 
up and photographed the crop from fifteen hills of each, 
and the difference in the yield was very apparent, in fact, 
the potatoes in the crop from the northern seed would 
have been graded as cullings in the other lot. 

The experiment proved so much that my northern 
friends sent no more seed potatoes. 

In eastern North Carolina the early crop 
How the of Irish potatoes is ready for market early in 

Second Crop t ^^^^ ^^^ f^^i matured. Those in- 

Potatoes are 
Grown in the tended for the late crop are let fully mature. 

South They are then dug and cut in two pieces, 

since it has been found that they sprout 
more readily when cut. But they are simply cut in half 
and not into the usual pieces for the spring planting. The 
cut potatoes are then placed in httle winrows in furrow 
and either covered with earth or with a thick layer of pine 
leaves. There they remain till August, and then, as they 
show signs of sprouting, they are planted in deep furrows 
but covered very hghtly till the green leaves appear, after 
which the soil is worked to them gradually till level, and 
all subsequent cultivation should be perfectly level and 
shallow in order to retain the moisture needed at that 
season. The crop grows until frost cuts the tops and is 
then dug and stored for the winter. This is usually 
about the first week in December. Planting is done in 
February in eastern North Carolina and earlier in Florida 
and the states south of North CaroHna. 

The second crop potatoes are, as we have said, placed 
in heaps and covered with soil. This keeps them looking 



The Irish Potato Crop 239 

Early perfectly fresh, and during the winter, when 

ermudas ^^^ potatoes from Bermuda make their 

appearance in the markets, the growers who have a 

surplus of these potatoes have found that they can 

take them up and barrel them fresh in double-head 

barrels and ship them to New York, where they are sold 

as New Bermuda potatoes. The only fraud is that they 

did not grow in Bermuda, for they are really better than 

the true Bermudas. The red skin BHss is the potato 

used for this purpose, as the Bermudas are red skinned. 

The great crop of early Irish potatoes in 

Planting and the South has been brought about largely 

r wing e |^ ^^^ increase in the manufacture and 
Early Crop m -^ , 
the South quahty of commercial fertilizers. And yet, 

while it is known that the earliest and clean- 
est crop can be grown by the use of these it is also well 
known that it is important for the crop that the soil be 
well supphed with humus. This is especially important 
as a means for preserving the moisture in the soil so 
essential to the perfection of the potato crop. The best 
soils for the crop are the sandy soils common to the coast 
country of the South Atlantic States, and the getting into 
these soils, where deficient, a full supply of organic matter 
to decay and form humus is an important matter. In 
some parts of this section there are large areas of soils 
reclaimed from the peaty swamps where there is a super- 
abundance of this vegetable decay, and the lack is mainly 
for the mineral elements phosphorus and potassium. 
But on the lighter soils it has been found essential to grow 
the previous season a legume crop to furnish not only the 
organic matter but the nitrogen largely that is needed for 



240 Practical Farming 

the potato crop. Hence, a crop of cow peas sown after 
some early crops of the previous season and left to die on 
the soil is one of the best preparations for the potato crop, 
since it not only furnishes the humus-making material 
but saves the purchase of part of the nitrogen, which is 
essential to the early production of this crop, much more 
so than with the main crop grown in the North. 

Having such a crop to turn under, the grower prepares 
his land as soon as possible after New Year's. The ques- 
tion with these growers is not how little of the commercial 
fertilizer they can use but how large an application they 
can make pay. One of the largest growers uses from 
I, GOO to 1,500 pounds per acre of the following mixture 
to make a ton: 

Acid Phosphate 900 pounds 

Fish Scrap 600 pounds 

Nitrate of Soda 100 pounds 

Muriate of Potash 400 pounds 

Part of this is well mixed in the soil in the furrows by 
the planting machine and part of it is spread broadcast. 
The crop is always planted with a machine that opens 
the furrows, places and covers the fertilizer and opens 
again and plants the potatoes. The furrows are about 
three feet wide and the sets are planted about fifteen 
inches apart. 

The cultivation is done entirely with the cultivator, 
after a first harrowing to level the soil before the potatoes 
appear, till the final cultivation, which is done with a small 
plow throwing a furrow to each side of the row, since it 
has been found that the early crop is benefited by this, 
as the sun warms the ridge in the early season better than 



The Irish Potato Crop 241 

on flat land. The crop is dug also by machinery. Shipping 
is done in barrels covered with burlaps, and the crop is well 
culled in the field and only first-class potatoes shipped un- 
less the price is so high that it pays to ship culls separately. 
Some use the cullings for planting the second crop, 
but the best growers use only the best potatoes for this 
purpose as they fear a deterioration of the seed otherwise. 
Since the advent of cold storage it has 

o° J T^°/^^^ been found that the second crop seed can 
Seed Potatoes ^ 

be kept till June and then planted in the 

South to make a perfectly matured crop better for table 

use than the usual second crop of the same season. For 

this crop a sod of clover is a good preparation turned 

under early in the season to decay before the planting of 

the crop. This crop should be planted in deep furrows 

and cultivated in the same way as the second crop from 

seed of the same season. It needs liberal fertilization, 

but not necessarily as heavy as for the early crop, since 

the turned-under sod will furnish a large part of the food 

needed, and will also help to keep the moisture needed in 

the soil. Flat culture and no hiUing should be the rule, 

as the crop is grown during the hottest part of the summer. 

This crop will mature completely and be far better for 

table use than the second growth of the same season. 

The Irish potato crop may very well come 

The Main into the improving farm rotation in the Mid- 

rop o ^1^ ^^^ Northern States, for the wheat crop 

Potatoes in ' ^ 

the North follows well after both corn and potatoes. 

Where a farmer is practicing a good short 

rotation of crops the best plan is to make the potato crop 

occupy a part of the field with the corn crop. 



242 Practical Farming 

The corn crop following a turned-under clover sod will 
occupy not only the best position in the rotation for the 
corn, but the same turned-under clover sod is the best 
possible preparation for the potato crop. In this case 
the farm manure should be appHed to the part of the sod 
devoted to corn, and commercial fertilizers should be used 
on the potato crop to avoid the danger of encouraging the 
growth of the scab fungus with the manure. Then, in 
the next round of the rotation the half of the field that was 
in corn the last time should be put in potatoes, so that 
each part may have the humus-making effect of the stable 
manure. 

Corn and potatoes both will come off in time to prepare 
the land for the wheat crop, so that there is no gap or 
lengthening of the rotation to introduce the potato crop. 
With the late crop of potatoes planted on the turned-under 
sod, which will furnish nearly enough of nitrogen, as the 
nitrification of the organic matter will be going on all 
during the summer, there will be less need for heavy 
applications of commercial fertilizer than on the Early 
potato crop of the southern trucker. Especially will there 
be less need for the nitrogen these growers use so freely 
to force an early crop. 

The preparation of the soil should be of course of the 
most thorough character, and where grown on a large 
scale the use of an effective potato planter will be 
essential. With one of these modern implements the 
fertilizer can be applied in the row with the machine 
ahead of the dropping of the potatoes, and the whole 
operation of planting can be done in the most rapid 
manner. 



The Irish Potato Crop 243 

There are numerous fertilizer mixtures sold as special 
potato fertilizers which differ very little in their composi- 
tion from the specials made by the same manufacturers 
for other crops. The chief manurial demands of the 
Irish potato crop are for phosphoric acid and potash, 
and with a clover sod plowed under the grower will have 
nearly or quite enough nitrogen for the crop. But it may 
be well to use for starting the crop a small percentage of 
the readily available nitrate of soda to nourish the growth 
till the organic nitrogen comes into use with the warm 
weather. We would, therefore, with such a crop prepare 
a mixture somewhat after the following: 

Acid Phosphate 1500 pounds 

Nitrate of Soda 100 pounds 

Sulphate of Potash 400 pounds 

We name the sulphate of potash here instead of the 
muriate used in the production of the early southern crop, 
because in that crop the mealy quality of the potatoes is 
of less importance than it is with the crop that is to be 
kept for winter use, and the muriate is generally a little 
cheaper. 

But where high quahty for winter table use is to be 
desired, the sulphate should always be used, as experi- 
ments have repeatedly shown that a far drier and more 
starchy potato is produced through the use of the sulphate 
than of the muriate. The early crop from the South is 
mainly consumed in an immature state as "new potatoes," 
and such are not expected to have the dry and starchy 
character demanded in the winter supply of fully matured 
tubers. 



244 Practical Farming 

Keeping In the Middle and Northern States the 

Potatoes in general place for storing potatoes is in the 
cellar. In the cellar of a dwelling, where 
the heating is done by the modem furnace, there 
will be no proper place for potatoes, since total 
darkness and a cool atmosphere are essential. The 
potato cellar should be either under the bam or some 
other outbuilding, or a structure to itself. It should be 
totally dark and at the same time have means for ventila- 
tion. Few reahze that the temperature at which water 
freezes will do no harm to potatoes. In fact, they will 
keep a great deal better where a temperature just above 
thirty-two degrees is maintained. The cellar should be 
provided with slatted shelves so that the potatoes may be 
placed not over two feet in depth. After they are first 
stored there will always be some sweating of the tubers, 
and while the weather is mild there should be free ventila- 
tion without admitting hght. Where it is practicable it 
is well to admit air to the cellar through underground 
terra-cotta pipes, and to have a ventilator overhead also. 
After the first sweating process is over it will be found 
that there is some slight rotting and the potatoes should 
be overhauled and all decayed ones removed. Plaster or 
air-slaked lime scattered among them at this time will be 
an advantage. 

After this during all nights when the outer temperature 
is about, at, or shghtly above freezing, keep all the under- 
ground and overhead ventilators open, but close up at 
once as the sun rises in the morning, always excluding 
light and day time air. By following this practice you 
will find that the temperature of the cellar will always 



The Irish Potato Crop 245 

remain cool even into the warm weather of the spring, 

and there will be little tendency to sprout. 

There are two forms of fungus disease 

Diseases and that affect the potato crop so far as the tops 

nsec s a ^^^ concerned, and another form that 
Affect the ' 

Potato affects the tubers only. For the first two 

diseases, the early and late bhght, spraying 

with a good fungicide is essential to the success of the crop. 

The foliage of the potato is also subject to the attacks 
of the Colorado potato beetle, and if preventive means 
are not used, this insect in most parts of the country will 
totally destroy the crop in some seasons. The fungus 
disease that affects the tubers only, the scab, demands 
special treatment of the tubers before planting, of which 
later. 

The most generally used preventive of the blights is the 
mixture known as the Bordeaux mixture. There are sev- 
eral formulas for making this, but the one we have most 
generally used for the potato crop is as follows: Dissolve 
five pounds of copper sulphate in a cask with twenty-five 
gallons of water. In another cask slake five pounds of 
fresh lime as for whitewash, and after slaking add water 
enough to make this twenty-five gallons. Strain these 
slowly into a third cask, stirring all the time. The mix- 
ture is then ready for use. The spraying is done with a 
spraying pump, of which there are numerous kinds, large 
and small. One of the best is a cask with a pump on a 
four-wheeled wagon with four nozzles arranged to spray 
four rows at once. Where the crop is grown on a smaller 
scale the spraying can be done with a knapsack-sprayer 
carried on the shoulders of the operator. 



246 Practical Farming 

The spraying should begin as soon as the tops of the 
potatoes are a few inches high and should be repeated 
every second week. As the beetles appear add to the 
fifty gallons of the Bordeaux mixture one-fourth of a 
pound of Paris green or a pound of arsenate of soda, the 
latter the better. It is well to use this as soon as the mature 
beetles are seen, for while they do not eat much, they do 
eat, and the more of these that are killed the fewer eggs 
will be laid and the fewer of the ravenous larvae we will 
have to destroy. 

For the prevention of the scab, which spoils the appear- 
ance of the tubers, we should always have the acid effect 
of the turned-under and fermenting sod. We should 
avoid land on which potatoes have grown scabby, and if 
we are obliged to plant scabby potatoes we should treat 
them before planting with a fungicide. For this purpose 
the best is to make a solution of formaldehyde, commonly 
sold under the commercial name of Formalin. One 
pound or pint of this in thirty gallons of water will answer. 
Put the potatoes in a sack and suspend them in a cask 
containing the solution and let them soak for an hour, 
and then spread out and dry them. The solution is good 
so long as enough remains, but it is better to add to it a 
freshly-made solution of the same strength. The same 
solution can be profitably used for soaking seed wheat 
and oats to prevent the smut and rust. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE HAY CROP 

THERE has long been a notion that the man who 
sells hay is certain to reduce the fertility of his 
soil, and doubtless hay making and selling has 
been practiced and still is practiced by many farmers with 
this result. But there is no reason why a farmer who 
practices the proper rotation of crops, and is situated 
near a good hay market, should not make hay his money 
crop profitably for himself and his land. 

But in many sections near the large cities the practice 
is to run the land, year after year, in timothy until it will 
no longer make a paying crop, and then plow for corn. 
This practice is certain to reduce the fertility of the soil, 
especially where such farmers are making milk for the 
city in addition to selling hay. 

At a farmers' institute in one of the best counties adja- 
cent to the city of Philadelphia, we noticed that the 
farmers were mowing their lands for years before turning 
back to hoed crops, I urged that they should adopt a 
shorter rotation and grow more clover. But they told us 
that it was no use, as they could not grow clover as they 
once did. The reason was perfectly plain. They had 
run their land in timothy till it was deficient in the mineral 
matters that clover needs and had gotten it into an acid 

247 



248 Practical Farming 

condition in which the bacteria which enable the clover 
to get nitrogen from the air, could not thrive. 

I urged that it was not the part of a good farmer to give 
up without investigating the causes that made it difficult 
to grow clover where it once throve well, and told them 
that they not only needed a shorter rotation but hme to 
restore the alkalinity of their soil associated with the 
mineral plant foods that they had been selhng off their 
farms in hay and milk. 

Heavy crops of hay, hke heavy crops of other things, 
pay better than poor crops, and the only way to make hay 
growing profitable is to keep up the fertihty of the soil, 
and right there is where the commercial fertilizers come 
in most profitably if they are used not merely for the 
production of crops direct but in the growing of those 
crops that feed the land and the stock at same time. 

A farm where hay is one of the money 

Rotation for -n r -v. u r u 

„ ^ crops will of necessity be a farm where 

a Hay Farm ^ , , •' , 

the small grain crop is of importance, and 
wheat can well be associated with hay as a market 
crop. 

On such a farm I would devote the entire corn crop to 
the making of silage for feeding on the farm, and I would 
not be tempted by a high price for straw to sell the wheat 
straw, but would consider it one of the important materials 
for increasing the manure and the humus in the soil, for 
no matter what is the sale crop the keeping up of the 
humus-making material in the soil is essential to success. 
And no matter how important the sale of hay may be it 
is equally important that some form of live stock industry 
should be carried on. 



The Hay Crop 249 



Fertilizers will prove a great help, but fertilizers do not 
furnish any humus-making material, and hence it is essen- 
tial that some feeding be done. Where hay is a profitable 
crop in the immediate vicinity of a large city, beef or 
dairy products will also be profitable, and butter making 
will be found to be clear of the drain on the land that 
milk selhng is, since it leaves the mineral matters to be 
returned to the soil through the feeding of the skim 
milk. 

On a farm so situated the farmer who is to some extent 
a dairyman, can afford to buy grain to balance up the 
silage ration, and should have an abundance of straw 
for bedding and manure making. 

Starting then with a sod to be plowed for com, on 
which all the manurial accumulation has been spread in 
the best manner with a manure-spreader, for we assume 
that no progressive farmer will in this day be without this 
essential machine for saving labor and getting the best 
results from his manure, we will turn the sod deeply and 
plant and cultivate the corn crop shallow and level, and 
cutting the entire crop from the land for the silo we will 
have a stubble that can be put into the best condition for 
the wheat crop by the thorough use of the cutaway har- 
row, for at that season the deep rebreaking with the plow 
will be a disadvantage to the wheat crop. But the cuta- 
way must be used in both directions frequently enough to 
put the few inches of the surface into the best possible 
tilth. 

With this wheat we would seed timothy, after having 
worked into the soil in the preparation or in the driUing 
of the wheat, about 400 pounds per acre of acid phosphate 



250 Practical Farming 

and twenty-five pounds of muriate of potash. I would 
seed liberally, for there is a great waste in thin seeding of 
any grass or clover. Use not less than ten pounds of seed 
per acre. The following spring sow clover at same 
rate. 

After the wheat is harvested, and the rag weeds start, 
run the mower over the field to stop the weed growth. 
But start out with the determination that no pasturing 
whatever is to be done on the cultivated fields, but have a 
standing pasture for the stock, and on no account ever 
pasture a stubble that has been set in grass and clover. 

The following spring, before growth starts, apply a 
light dressing of lime, say 800 to 1,000 pounds per acre, 
and run a smoothing harrow over to completely spread it. 
The hay that season will be largely a clover mixture of 
course. The second growth may be mown for feeding 
on the farm or left on the land. 

The next spring give the grass a dressing of a high- 
grade fertihzer strong in ammonia, or topdress with nitrate 
of soda alone after growth starts, at rate of 100 pounds 
per acre, and it will show well in the hay crop. The next 
winter get out on the sod all the home-made manure 
again, but do not Hme till the next round of the rotation. 
Do not be tempted to run the sod longer for hay. You 
will get far better crops by practicing a short rotation and 
making but one clear hay crop annually and another 
mixed crop. 

Then, by feeding the entire corn crop on the farm in 
the shape of ensilage, and balancing it with bought grain 
and making a gilt-edged butter, you will be annually 
increasing the productivity of the land and will soon be 



The Hay Crop 251 



getting hay crops that will be the envy of your neighbors 

who run their land to exhaustion in hay. 

For the dairyman or stock feeder who is 

Making Hay ^^^ especially interested in the sale of hay, 

from Legumes , . , „ 

Qjjj^ the various legume plants oiier a hay far 

superior for his use to the usual grass hays. 

Not only are they far superior as hay, but the growing of 

these plants should be the main reliance of the general 

farmer for the nitrogen he needs for the succeeding crops. 

And while for the hay market the legumes are not so well 

adapted as the grasses, there is a growing interest in them 

in the markets, and those who keep family cows in villages 

and towns are more disposed to seek these in preference 

to the grass hays as better suited to the feeding of cows. 

_ , ^. The chief of all the legume crops over a 

Red Clover , . , ^ ^ . „ . 

very large part of the country, especially in 

the Middle and Northern States, is red clover, trijolium 
pratense. What is known as the medium red clover is the 
kind most generally used. As we have noted heretofore 
there has been in all sections of the country where clover 
formerly thrived, an increasing complaint of the failure 
to get a good stand, or a failure after a stand has been 
secured to get the crop to survive the first summer. We 
hear from various parts of the country of what is called 
clover-sick land. In some sections of the Middle South, 
especially in Tennessee, trouble has been had with a fun- 
gus disease that affects the plant seriously. But as a rule 
the failure of clover is due to one or both of two causes, 
the exhaustion or rather the deficiency in the soil of the 
plant foods that clover especially needs, phosphoric acid 
and potash, or soil acidity that prevents the success of the 



252 Practical Farming 

bacteria that live on clover roots and enable the plant to 
get and combine the free nitrogen from the air. In many 
of the older sections both of these causes exist. 

The practice of running land in grass for hay year after 
year with no help from manure or fertilizers till the hay 
crop fails, not only exhausts the jilant food of the soil but 
brings it into an acid condition. Liming will restore the 
alkalinity of the soil, and then the use of fertilizers carry- 
ing phosphoric acid and potash will restore the plant food 
needed by the clover crop. 

There has long been a notion that the continued use of 
phos])hatic rock dissolved in sulphuric acid has been 
the cause of the acidity of soils. This acidity can hardly 
be charged to the acid phosphate direct, for no manu- 
facturer intentionally leaves any free acid in his product, 
since that would prevent its drilling freely. But that it 
has been indirectly the cause has been well shown by 
experiments at the Ohio Experiment Station which seemed 
to show that the result of the continued use of acid phos- 
phate had this effect though the crops taking up the solu- 
ble phosphoric acid and leaving free sulphuric acid in the 
soil, which is at once combined with the lime in the soil, 
and thus forms sulphate of lime and robs the soil of the 
lime carbonate needed to maintain the alkaUnity. The 
same station found that when a liberal ajiplication of com- 
plete fertilizer was made, preceded by liming the soil, a line 
growth of clover was had on soil where it had been failing. 

It is evident, then, that the way to get back to successful 
clover-growing is to restore the alkalinity of the soil 
through the use of lime and then to supply the phosphoric 
acid and potash that the plant especially needs. 



The If ay Crop 253 



Making Hay A great deal has been written in regard 
o Clover ^^ ^j^^ proper method of making hay from 

the clover crop. The common practice of farmers has 
been to cut clover for hay when a large part of the blos- 
som heads have ripened and turned brown. This usually 
results in a very dusty hay largely unfit for feeding horses, 
because of the dried hairs of the ripe blooms. 

A far better hay, and one that is lit for any animal, can 
be made by mowing the crop at an earlier stage. The 
common practice has been followed mainly because the 
hay dries more readily. But when properly managed a 
far better hay can be made from clover when the crop is 
just in general bloom and none or few heads have 
browned. 

Clover and all hay from legumes should be cured mainly 
in the cock and barn, and exposed as little to the sun 
spread out on the ground as can be avoided. One of the 
most important implements in hay making in general and 
especially in making legume hay, is the tedder, an imple- 
ment for tossing up the green cut hay so that it wilts more 
rapidly. We have always used the following method with 
success. Start the mowers as soon as the dew is fairly off 
on a bright sunny day, and mow till noon only. Start the 
tedder right after the mower and keep it going all the morn- 
ing tossing the hay up lightly. In the afternoon rake the 
hay into winrows. Next morning turn these winrows 
over and let lie to dry off till afternoon. Then put the 
hay into as tall and narrow cocks as will stand well. 

Hay ca])s made of s(juares of twilled cotton cloth are 
useful to protect the cocks from a change of weather and 
should always be at hand. These are made four feet 



254 Practical Farming 

square, or three by four, with eyelets in the corners through 
which sticks can be stuck to prevent the wind from blowing 
them off. But during all bright sunshine the cocks should 
remain uncovered. As soon as you can take a handful of 
the hay and give it a hard twist and can see no sap run to 
the twist, the hay is ready to go into the barn. It is im- 
portant to get it there before the leaves get crisp, as in that 
case they will be shattered off and they are the best part 
of the hay. Put it into the barn then while still hrap and 
let it settle in the mow by its own weight and without any 
tramping that can be avoided. Once in the barn, let it 
strictly alone, for if it begins to heat, as it will, and you 
stir it, you will let in the spores of mold that are always 
in the air and will have some moldy hay. Let it 
alone and it will cure bright and sweet and you will not 
have dusty hay if the crop was mown at the right stage, 
when just in full bloom. Clover hay should always be 
stored under cover, as it damages badly in stacks. 

This clover has been assumed to be a 

Alsike or cross between red and white clover, but 

Swedish . 

Clover there is no direct evidence of this. It has 

seemed to thrive better than red clover in 

some sections, but is better adapted to northern than 

Southern conditions and will thrive on land too wet and 

sour for red clover. It has been found to be a dangerous 

crop for horses and mules to pasture on, as it produces 

sores on the animals that give a great deal of trouble. It 

does not make the heavy growth for hay that red clover 

does, but is probably a good crop for soil improvement 

where red clover fails from lack of drainage in the land. 

As a hay crop it is of minor importance. 



The Hay Crop 255 



Crimson This plant has received a variety of names 

Clover -j^ various parts of the country, such as 

Scarlet clover, Italian clover, German clover and Annual 
clover. It is strictly an annual plant, sown in late 
summer or fall and matures in early spring from April 
to late May according to chmate. Crimson clover is 
mainly of value as a soil improver, since it can be turned 
under in the spring in time for the planting of a hoed crop 
of com or tobacco or cotton. It is harder to cure as hay 
than any of the clovers, and if the blossoms are allowed to 
get brown the hay will be dangerous food for horses on 
account of the hair balls that form in the animal's intes- 
tines. It can be made into hay if cut as soon as in full 
bloom, but it requires frequent turning in the cocks till 
cured suflEiciently to store. The feeding value of the hay 
is higher than that of red clover since it has a larger per- 
centage of protein. 

In the Middle States crimson clover is very commonly 
sown among com at last working, and progressive farmers 
in the South sow it among cotton. Both give the soil a 
good winter cover, which is especially important in the 
South to prevent the wasting of fertility from the bare and 
unfrozen ground. Farmers who think about their busi- 
ness are gradually coming to understand the value of a 
green crop on the land in winter that would otherwise be 
left bare after a hoed crop. Southern farms have lost as 
much through the wasting of the bare land in the cotton 
fields in winter as from the cropping. 

Crimson clover is not certainly hardy much north of 
central Pennsylvania as a rule, and hence cannot be used 
as a regular crop in the more northern sections. In the 



256 Practical Farming 

South it can be sown with success as late as November 
from southern North Carolina southward, but in the 
Middle States it should be sown in July or August. 

In 1889 when the author assumed a chair 

e ou ern -^^ ^j^^ North CaroHna College of Agriculture 
and Mechanic Arts, after having had experi- 
ence with the growing of the cow pea in Virginia, he was 
surprised to note that the farmers there had not realized 
what this crop could do for them as a regular part of the 
rotation for the improvement of the soil and the feeding 
of cattle. He began to lecture on the value of the cow pea 
at farmers' institutes and in articles prepared for the agri' 
cultural press. The result of his efforts surprised him, for 
not only in the South but in the Middle and Northern 
States farmers began to inquire about the cow pea, and 
to-day there are hundreds of acres grown where one was 
seventeen years ago. 

But there have been many who from the name pea have 
concluded that the plant is a pea such as they have been 
accustomed to, and we have received hundreds of letters 
asking about sowing them with oats as is done with the 
Canada pea. It should be understood, however, that the 
southern cow pea is not a true pea, but more of a bean, 
and is a tender tropical plant that thrives only in hot 
weather. Therefore it could not be associated with oats 
for hay since if sown when the oats should be sown the 
seed would perish in the cold soil, and if the oats were 
sown at the time suitable to the cow pea they would be a 
failure. Cow peas should never be sown till the soil is warm. 
In the South they can be sown from May to August, 
and in the IMiddle States not till the soil is warm in June. 



The Hay Crop 257 



On the sandy soils of the South Atlantic States, where 
red clover does not thrive, the cow pea is really the "clover 
of the South." The southern farmer can do with it all 
that can be done with red clover and can do it in one- 
fourth the time that clover needs. It is a common prac- 
tice in this part of the South to sow the peas among the 
corn just before the last working and then cultivate them 
in, thus adding a fine humus-making crop after the com 
among which crimson clover can be sown as the leaves fall 
from the peas and make a good winter cover. 

As a hay crop in the South the value of the cow pea can 
hardly be overestimated, since it will make a fair crop on 
the poorest of land, and on good soil will make from two 
to three tons of hay per acre, and hay of far higher feeding 
value than red clover hay. There has long been a notion 
that the hay is very hard to cure, but in a long experience 
in the making of hay from the cow pea we have demons- 
trated that when properly done, the curing is easier than 
that of red clover. In the curing of the hay we adopt the 
same method we have described for red clover hay, with 
the exception that it is left in the field a little longer in the 
cocks, but still is put in the bam in a Hmp condition. 

The proper stage in which to cut the crop is just when 
the pods begin to tum yellow. If cut sooner, the hay is 
harder to cure, and if left till the pods ripen the leaves will 
fall oflf, and as these are the best part of the hay they 
should be preserved. 

Recently a different mode has been adopted in some 
parts of the South. Stakes six feet tall are planted over 
the field after the mower and the green pea vines are at 
once raked and shocked around these stakes in a tall 



258 Practical Farming 

narrow shock, and are left there to cure, and not touched 
till completely cured. The only difficulty about this 
method is that the greater part of the leaves are lost and 
much of the outer part of the shocks is blackened by the 
weather. While the peas will stand exposure to rains 
better than clover will, it is always better to make a bright 
and well cured hay and to save the leaves entirely, which can 
only be done by the completion of the curing in the bam. 

North of the Southern tier of counties in Pennsylvania 
it is doubtful if the cow pea can be reUed upon as a hay 
crop. But even much further north the cow pea will 
come in very usefully to the dairyman as a means for 
tiding over a dry period as a pasture crop when grass is 
burnt up, for the cow pea, as we have said, is a hot weather 
plant and will thrive under conditions that make the grass 
worthless. Being one of the legume family, it has the 
same capacity for getting nitrogen from the air that other 
legumes have. When sowti on land where the crop has 
not before been grown the first sowing may not be very 
successful, as the soil will not be supphed with the bac- 
teria. But these are carried on the seeds to some extent 
and if the same land is sown the following season it will 
be found that the inoculation has been made and the crop 
will succeed. We have accounts from farmers as far north 
as Ashtabula County, Ohio, and in Wisconsin, who have 
found this to be the case, and on hght and warm soils 
they have found the pea a very useful green manure plant, 
even where the seed fails to mature. 

The varieties of the cow pea are almost innumerable, 
as the plant is one of the most variable in its character. 
The varieties are usually distinguished by the color of 



The Hay Crop 259 



Varieties of the seeds. But the variation is not in this 
the Cow Pea characteristic only, for they vary greatly 
in habit and in the length of time needed to mature 
the crop, some maturing in sixty days, while others 
need loo or more days of warm weather. It will 
easily be seen then that in the more northern sections 
only those of early maturity are suited. But from North 
Carolina southward all the varieties mature perfectly. 
Among the earliest, which usually mature in sixty days 
are Warren's Extra Early, New Era and the Large White 
Black-eye. Of these, two crops can be ripened on the 
same land in one season in the South, and in almost any 
section of the North where the farms are not too elevated 
and the nights cold, any of these can be matured. But 
these are bush varieties like the bean and do not make the 
heaviest crops of hay, but are valuable for summer pasture 
and for soil improvement. 

Next in earhness is the variety known as Whip-poor-will. 
This will mature in about seventy-five days, and it, too, is 
a bush variety and one of the most productive of seed. 
Next come the black peas. Of these there is quite a 
groups all with jet black seed varying only in the size of 
the peas. The one most commonly used is the large 
black, which is commonly grown in Virginia. It is a 
strong running variety and will climb to the top of com 
among which it is planted, and sown alone it makes a 
heavy crop of hay that is apt to be badly tangled and hard 
to mow. It requires loo days of warm weather to mature 
perfectly. The clay pea, so-called from the clay color of 
the seed has the same habit and season as the large black 
and can be classed with it. 



260 Practical Farming 

The strongest runner of all the cow pea family is the 
variety long called the "Unknown" in the South. Re- 
cently it has been named Wonderful. Though this is the 
most rank runner of all the varieties, and makes vines ten 
to fifteen feet long, its early habit is to grow very erect and 
then to run all over the tops of the plants. This makes it 
easier to mow than the black or clay, as the mower gets 
under it easily. 

But the Wonderful is a very late pea and not adapted 
to conditions north of east central North Carolina, as in 
southern Pennsylvania it would not more than get in 
bloom before frost. But for pasture and soil improve- 
ment it will be useful on account of the wonderful mass of 
vines it makes. 

These are only a few of the leading varieties, and I 
might fill a volume with a description of all the sorts that 
have been produced in the South. Botanically the cow 
pea is still something of a puzzle to the botanist. It has 
been called by various names, but it is now generally con- 
ceded to be Vigna catiang, and from the investigations we 
made a number of years ago we are satisfied that the 
species is represented by the one known as the White 
Black-eye, and that from this variety the others have been 
derived. The White Black-eye is largely grown in the 
South as a table vegetable, taking the place of beans in 
the North, and when one gets accustomed to it he becomes 
an ardent lover of the food. 

The Velvet Bean, Mucuna utilis, has at- 

e e ve tracted great interest of late years as a forage 

crop for the South. It is the rankest chmber 

of all the legume family. In southern Georgia I once saw 



The Hay Crop 261 

a plant that had cHmbed to the top of a tall windmill 
derrick. The Velvet bean makes a wonderful mass of 
forage, and is cured in the same way as the cow pea. But 
it is a plant that requires a long season and is of little use 
north of the lower Cape Fear river section of North Caro- 
lina. From that section south it is a very valuable hay- 
making crop. We have planted them eight feet apart 
each way and had them cover the ground waist deep, and 
though the mass was so great, we found that in the im- 
mature state the vines were in that they cured more 
readily than the cow peas. For the extreme South there 
is hardly any hay crop that will make a greater yield, and 
the hay has a high feeding value. The yield of hay and 
seed both are heavy and few seed are needed to plant the 
ground sufficiently. But for the larger part of the coun- 
try, the Velvet bean has no value whatever. 

This is another of the legume family that 

e eggar -^^^ ^ value only in the far South, in southern 
Georgia and Florida. It is a rank growing 
species of the common tick seed and is botanically Des- 
modium tortuosum. It is an annual plant growing from 
six to ten feet high, and at the Louisiana station is said to 
have made four to six tons of hay per acre. Experiments 
made with it as far north as North Carolina and Virginia 
do not show that it has much value that far north, and 
that the cow pea is far better in those sections. But on 
the sandy soils of Florida it flourishes finely, and has, 
doubtless, a great value there. The family of Desmodium 
has gotten the name Beggar Weed from the fact that they 
grov/ on the poorest soils. 

Medicago denliculata, commonly known as Burr clover 



262 Practical Farming 

Burr Clover from the burr-like nature of the seeds, is an 
annual plant belonging to the same family 
of legumes as alfalfa. It has been found valuable as a 
soil improver in the South, but is not perfectly hardy 
northward and hence, as it must be sown in the fall, it is 
not adapted to northern conditions. It has little value as 
a forage plant, but as a nitrogen fixing plant it is not 
excelled by any of the legume family. It has another ad- 
vantage in the fact that its burr-like seeds carry with them 
the bacteria fc the inoculation of the soil, and as this 
form of bacterium is the same as that which lives on 
alfalfa the burr clover forms a ready means for the inocula- 
tion of the soil for alfalfa. 

No plant in the legume family has attracted 
more attention of late years than Alfalfa, 
which is sometimes called Lucerne. Botanically it is Medi- 
cago saliva, and is a perennial plant sending down long tap 
roots into the soil and hence demands a permeable subsoil. 
It is useless to endeavor to grow alfalfa on a poor soil, 
or one that is in an acid condition and not well drained. 
A mellow, clayey loam either naturally or artificially well 
drained suits the crop. While alfalfa, Hke other legumes 
can get nitrogen from the air, it is always an advantage to 
give it some nitrogenous manure or fertilizer at the start. 
For this purpose there is nothing better than good stable 
manure. But, like all the legumes, its chief requirements 
are for phosphoric acid and potash, and if good and 
repeated crops are expected, the soil must be kept replen- 
ished with these, for in the taking off of crop after crop of 
hay, as is done with alfalfa, the mineral elements in the 
soil are very rapidly removed. 



The Hay Crop 263 

When alfalfa is sown in the spring the best growers have 
found that a nurse crop hke barley is of advantage in keep- 
ing down the weeds. But the experience of most growers 
has resulted in finding that the best success is had from 
late summer or early fall sowing. A good preparation for 
the crop is the growing during the early part of the sum- 
mer a crop of cow peas on which a good application of 
acid phosphate and potash has been made, for no matter 
how fertile the loam may be, any increase in humus- 
making material will be a help. The heavy shading of 
the peas keeps down the weeds and the peas can be mown 
for hay, or in the South turned under after mature and 
dry. But this would make the sowing too late in the 
northern sections, and it would be better to pasture the 
peas down before plowing for the alfalfa. 

From the middle of August to middle of September is 
the best time for sowing according to latitude. Care must 
be taken to get good and clean seed, for there is a great 
deal of seed sold that has seeds of dodder mixed with it, 
and dodder is a parasitic plant that is destructive to 
alfalfa. Better get a sample of the seed offered and send 
it to your experiment station for inspection, and thus be 
sure of getting clean seed. 

Never sow less than twenty-five pounds of seed per 
acre, and thirty pounds will be none too many. It has 
been found that as the soil gets inoculated a smaller 
amount of seed will do, but in the first start it is better to 
use seed liberally. In sowing in late summer or fall, it is 
better not to use a nurse crop, but to sow alfalfa seed 
alone. 

If a good stand is had in the fall, we have found it a 



264 Practical Farming 

very useful practice to apply in the early spring before 
growth starts, about twenty bushels per acre of freshly 
water-slaked lime, and then run a smoothing harrow over 
to completely spread it among the plants. Alfalfa, like 
most legumes, is greatly benefited by an appHcation of 
lime occasionally. 

After sowing the seed, run a weeder over the land to 
cover them about an inch, but do not roll the land unless 
it is very dry. In the preparation of the land, a good 
application of commercial fertilizer will give the plants a 
start that will greatly promote the chances of a good stand. 

The first mowing should be made as soon as a few 
blossoms show here and there. If you wait till in full 
bloom, the second growth will be lighter, for blossoming 
is a weakening process to the plant. The crops can be 
mown twice and perhaps three times the first year, and 
thereafter, if the fertility of the soil is kept up by annual 
top-dressings, you can mow it three to four times a season. 

Rake and cock the hay as advised for clover, and store 
it while still somewhat limp, for if too dry you will lose 
the leaves, which as one grower says, are equal to wheat 
bran for feeding. Being a perennial plant, alfalfa will 
last many years if the soil is well fed. After three or four 
years it is a good practice to disk the crop over in spring, 
thus, splitting some of the crowns and loosening the soil 
and greatly benefiting the growth. Several new varieties 
of alfalfa have been introduced, but are still in the ex- 
perimental stage. 

. The Soja or Soy Bean is a leguminous 

The Soja Bean 

plant that has been introduced from Japan, 

and in some of its many varieties has found favor with 



The Hay Crop 265 

farmers in various parts of the country. It can be grown 
further north than the southern cow pea as a hay-making 
crop, and is more easily cured into hay than that plant is. 
The plant has been cultivated as human food in China 
and Japan, for hundreds of years, but has been introduced 
into this country in the last twenty-five years. 

In this country the crop is valued only as stock feed. 
The crop in some of the earUer varieties can be grown as 
far north as northern Ohio. The seed c^n be planted in 
drills and cultivated, or can be sown broadcast for hay 
making. The broadcast sowing makes the finest hay, as 
those grown in rows make so much hard and indigestible 
stalk. For hay the crop should be mown when the pods 
are fairly formed, and before they mature, since after that 
the stems get very woody. If grown in rows for the seed, 
the crop will have to be cut by hand, as the seed pods 
grow so close to the ground that the mower will leave them 
uncut. The crop will also make good silage and when 
planted alternately in hills with com for silage, the feed 
will be greatly improved by the presence of the soys. 
The crop has a high protein content and makes a very 
valuable feed as forage, and the ripe seed are nearly as 
rich as cotton seed, having 34 per cent, of protein. 

In Kansas they made fifteen to twenty bushels per acre 
of seed. The variety known as the medium early yellow 
is the best for the Middle States, and the tall yellow for 
the South. The seed should not be planted till the 
ground is warm in late May or early June. The growth 
is larger in some than in other varieties according to 
height of the plants, and of the tall growing varieties, 
eight tons of green forage have been made, which would 



266 Practical Farming 

give I.I tons of digestible matter, of which one-sixth will 

be protein. Even as high as thirteen tons of green forage 

have been reported. 

Hairy Vetch {Vicia villosa) belongs to 

o I \j ^ 1. that class of legumes that have been known 
Sand Vetch ^ 

as "tares." The plant is perfectly hardy 
in any part of the country. It is an annua i sown in late 
summer or fall and mown in the spring. If the seed are 
allowed to ripen before mowing, the plant will reseed the 
land and come again in the fall, and if in a wheat-growing 
section, it may become a pest in the wheat crop, the tares 
that the enemy sowed in the man's wheat field as stated 
in the Bible. 

When sovMi for hay, the vetch should always have some 
tall growing grain like wheat or rye sown with it to sup- 
port the plants, which otherwise will sprawl on the ground 
and get damaged. Sown with wheat at rate of one bushel 
of wheat and a peck of vetch in September, a fme hay 
crop can be made by mowing when the wheat is just 
passing into the dough stage. In the Middle and South- 
ern States, the mowing can be done in time to put the 
land in corn, and the corn crop will be helped by the 
nitrogen-gathering capacity of the vetch. 

But wliere wheat is one of the staple crops it will be 
well to a\'oid the vetch. We once grew a crop of wheat 
and vetch hay that made nearly two tons per acre, and 
immediately followed it with cow peas and made as 
much more hay per acre and then got the land in 
alfalfa the same fall. This was in North Carolina where 
the season is long enough to make such a practice 
successful. 



The Hay Crop 267 



Like all other legume crops the vetch is greatly helped 

by a hberal application of acid phosphate and potash. 

We have treated thus briefly of the leading 

e ace o icpr^jne crops that are of value as soil im- 
the Legumes " ^ 

provcrs and forage crops largely to show 

that through the use of these in a good rotation one can 

grow forage and improve his land for the production of 

the grass hay crops for the market, and by practicing a 

reasonably short rotation can through their use keep the 

grass improving annually. 

The legumes will furnish all the nitrogen needed and 
by using the mineral plant foods in acid phosphate and 
potash liberally, their growth, and consequently, their 
power to get the nitrogen, will be greatly increased. We 
would advise those best adapted to the making of good 
forage for the feeding value is far in advance of their 
mere value as manure direct, and we have no sympathy 
with the so-called green manure idea. It is poor farm 
economy to bury a valuable food crop as manure when by 
feeding it and carefully saving the droppings and apply- 
ing them to the soil we can recover more than 80 per cent, 
of the manurial value of the crops, while getting a profit 
from the feeding value. 

Properly cultivated and the legume used as soil im- 
])rovers and forage, one can easily make a money crop 
from grass hay without impoverishing his soil; in fact, can 
make it more productive. Feed the legume crops with 
commercial fertilizers liberally, and through their use 
keep up the humus content of the soil and the farm is 
certain to improve, no matter what the sale crop may be. 



CHAPTER XIX 

HOW THE LEGUMES AID US 

THE great family of plants known to botanists 
under the name of Leguminoscp comprises 
herbs, shrubs and large trees, and it has long 
been known that these plants do in some way help the 
fertility of the soil. 

For years it was contended that the herbaceous legumes 
like clover and cow peas absorbed ammoniacal gases from 
the air and in this way added nitrogen to the soil. But 
long conducted experiments tended to show that there is 
no such absorption of ammonia from the air, though the 
late Doctor Gray once said that he could not see why 
plants should not absorb gaseous ammonia in the air, 
but that there was no proof that they did so. 

But the studies of biologists finally demonstrated that 
the acquisition of combined nitrogen in the plants of this 
family was the result of the growth on their roots of certain 
microscopic plants known as bacteria. These bacteria 
are truly parasitic on the roots and by their presence cause 
an abnormal swelling on the roots forming small knots or 
nodules in which the bacteria live. 

It has never been proven that there are distinct species 
of these bacteria on the roots of ditTerent legumes, but by 
long association with certain species of legumes many of 

268 



How the Legumes Aid Us 269 

them have acquired characters that make it necessary that 
that particular legume shall be their home and they do not 
readily Hve on other species, though in some nearly allied 
species the bacteria will transfer from one species to an- 
other as it has been found that the bacteria that hve 
on the roots of the Medicago denticulata will also live on 
Medicago sativa, or alfalfa, and that the form that lives on 
the roots of Melilotus alba will also thrive on the alfalfa 
roots. The bacteria that affect the vetches will also be 
transferred from the garden pea, and all the true clovers 
seem to be the home of a distinct form common to all of 
them. 

A great deal has been written of late years in regard to 
the artificial culture of the various forms of bacteria that 

are parasitic on the roots of the different 
Arti cial species of legumes. It was thought for a 

time that these laboratory cultures could be 
used in the inoculation of the seed or the soil for the 
various legume plants with success. The Department of 
Agriculture in Washington undertook the work of pre- 
paring the cultures and distributing them to the farmers in 
all parts of the country. Placed in sterilized raw cotton, 
and with nutrient materials for promoting their growth 
after being received by the farmers, many thousands of 
cultures were distributed. 

But unfortunately, it was found that the bacteria on the 
cotton were very short lived, and there were more failures 
than successes. Hence the use of the artificial cultures 
has been generally abandoned, it being found more prac- 
ticable to use the soil from a field that has already been 
inoculated by long cultivation of the particular legume 



270 Practical Farming 

desired. Then, too, it has been found that many of the 
legumes carry on their seeds the bacteria that Hve on their 
roots, and that the mere sowing of the seed will after a 
time fully inoculate the soil. 

This has been found true in the case of crimson clover. 
When this clover was first sown in the far South, it was 
found that it did not succeed and growers jumped to the 
conclusion that it could not be grown far South. But 
those who again sowed on the same land found that the 
previous sowing, though a failure as a crop, had inoculated 
the soil so that the crop succeeded. The same is true of 
the Southern cow pea. Sown in the north it rarely 
docs well the first summer, but if the same land is sown 
again the following season the crop is a success. 

Then, too, it has been found that the burr-like seeds of 
Mcdicago denticulata, or burr clover, as it is called, will 
carry the bacteria that live not only on its roots, but also 
on the roots of alfalfa, and the soil can be inoculated for 
alfalfa by scattering the soil from a spot where Melilotus 
alba or sweet clover has been growing as a weed. This 
weed is abundant in most parts of the country, and es- 
pecially on waste vacant land about the cities. But the 
great value of the legumes, aside from their capacity to 
get for us the free nitrogen from the air and combine it in 
the organic matter for future crops, lies in the accumula- 
tion and increase of the humus-making material in the 
soil. As we have heretofore remarked, sand and clay are 
the mere dead skeleton of a soil, humus is its life. 

In much of the farming of the past, especially in the 
single cropping of the cotton country, the annual clean 
cultivation and exposure of the soil to the sun has burnt 



How the Legumes Aid Us 271 

up and wasted the humus, and the soil is htcrally dead, 
because the bacterial hfe that abounds in humus has been 
starved out. The soil bakes after a rain and renders the 
germination of seed difficult. It dries out rapidly and 
gets so dry in long spells of drought that the plant food in 
the soil cannot be dissolved and the crops are starved. 

When the land was newly cleared from the forest, there 
was none of these things to perplex the cultivator. It was 
full of the dark vegetable decay, was mellow to cultivate, 
did not bake nor wash, and retained the moisture during 
dry spells. But with the wearing out of this dark vege- 
table decay by constant clean cultivation, all these difli- 
culties come in and in any system of improvement we must 
make an effort to get back to the former new-ground 
conditions. 

For this purpose the legumes are the most efficient aid 
we can have. It would be easy to keep up these conditions 
if all farmers had an abundance of barnyard and stable 
manure for their hoed crops annually, for aside from their 
fertilizing value the droppings of our domestic animals 
are always associated with a large amount of vegetable 
matter used in the bedding, which is good humus-making 
material. 

But few farmers have enough of this, and here the 
legumes, aided by applications of phosphoric acid and 
potash, come in as a cheap substitute for the vegetable 
matter in the manure. Not that we would under all 
conditions advise the use of the whole legume crops as 
manure for we have more than once said that it is not 
good farm economy to bury a valuable food crop in the 
soil, but that it should be used to increase the amount of 



272 Practical Farming 

the home-made manure, and give us its feeding value 
before we return it to the soil. 

But even when the crop is saved for forage there will 
always be a very considerable amount of the humus- 
making material left in the roots as well as a goodly part 
of the nitrogen which the roots have assimilated. Then, 
too, it is not good economy to plow down a green crop, 
even if it is not wanted for food, for so long as the crop 
grows it is doing the work of nitrogen fixing in the soil, 
and if we cut this short by plowing under the whole crop 
at midsummer, we lose what the plant would have done 
for us the remainder of the season. 

In the South and in a sandy soil, there is still another 
reason why no green crop should be plowed under in hot 
weather. The fermentation of the green mass will often 
so sour the soil that the growth of subsequent crops is 
injured instead of being benefited by the turning under 
of the green crop, and a hming is necessary to restore the 
alkalinity of the soil. 

The legume crop is the place where the commercial 
fertilizers will pay the farmer best. If the legumes are 
liberally fed with phosphoric acid and potash, there will 
not only be a greater growth of forage but the increased 
activity of the plants will result in a much greater activity 
in the nitrogen-fixing bacteria on the roots, and the fol- 
lowing crop will be more benefited than if the fertilizer 
had been applied directly to the grain or cotton crop. 

Whatever may be the exact way in which the legume 
crops get the nitrogen from the air, there is evidence that 
some of it is fixed in the soil, and is of use to crops immedi- 
ately associated with the legume. Corn, with crimson 



How the Legumes Aid Us 273 

clover or cow peas sown among it is not only not injured 
by the associated crop, but is actually helped, unless the 
season is so extremely dry that moisture is taken from it 
too fast. 

The pecuHar value of the legumes as forage and hay- 
making crops lies in the fact that they have far larger 
amounts of protein than the more carbonaceous grasses, 
and hence make a more complete ration for stock, and 
this higher feeding value is gotten from plants that also 
feed the soil in the most costly and one of the most im- 
portant elements of plant food, and through their culture 
the farmer is enabled to increase his crops of the hay- 
making grasses. 

Hence it is becoming more and more evident that the 
farmer of the future must be a legume farmer. If he finds 
that clover fails where he formerly grew it well, he must 
understand that it is usually his own fault, and should at 
once study the reasons for the failure. In most cases he 
will find that it is the result of an acidity in his soil or from 
the deficiency of plant food or the lack of humus that 
allows the soil to dry out in summer so that the clover dies. 
He can cure the acidity with applications of lime; he can 
restore the mineral plant foods that may be lacking and 
through the use of some of the legume plants that he can 
grow, he can restore the humus and get his land back to 
the production of good crops of red clover. And no mat- 
ter how many of the other legumes he may find useful as 
catch crops, and in certain places, by far the larger part of 
the country from Virginia northward, should depend on red 
clover as the standard legume crop, just as the country 
south of that should depend on the cow pea. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE GRASSES 

THE great grass family includes not only the crops 
usually known to farmers as grass, but also our 
cereal crops, for Indian corn, wheat, rye, etc., 
are all included in the grass family. But here we propose 
to treat only of those that are commonly used as forage 
and hay-making crops. 

Grass is Nature's great soil cover, her means for ac- 
cumulating humus soil where forests are lacking. The 
great prairies of the West owe their fertility to the grasses 
that have grown and decayed century after century, while 
the herbage has protected the soil from the sun and thus 
promoted the bacterial life that is constantly engaged in 
the preparation of more food for the crop. 

The farmer has broken the old sod and found a soil of 
great fertility, and at once jumped to the conclusion that 
it was inexhaustible, and has gone on to crop this virgin 
soil year after year, selling off the great deposit in his bank 
till in manv cases he finds that his balance is tretting short. 
Constant corn growing in the corn belt and constant wheat 
growing on the fertile plains of the Dakotas has the same 
result in gradually diminishing crops that it has in the 
cotton lands of the South. 

The improving farmer finds that he must imitate Nature 
to some extent and grow more legumes and more grass. 
We have shown how the legumes may aid in the production 

274 



The Grasses 21b 



of better grass crops as well as other crops on the farm. 
The Southern farmers have neglected the grasses under 
the impression that their climate is not adapted to grass 
simply because they cannot grow the great hay grass of 
the North, timothy. But there is no part of the country 
where unaided Nature produces a greater variety of 
grasses than in the Southern States. 

Many years ago the late Edmund Ruffin, one of the 
most thoughtful and observant farmers of Virginia, wrote 
a book giving a description of the coastal plain of Eastern 
North Carolina. In that book, Mr. Ruffin said that in 
his opinion Eastern North CaroHna was destined to be 
the greatest stock section of the Atlantic coast, because 
of the wonderful profusion of native grasses. This was 
over half a century ago, and from that time down to the 
present the farmers there have been battling with grass for 
growing cotton continuously, while the grass still comes 
in as soon as the cotton is left oflf, and would have made 
the country richer if the grass had had the first place 
instead of cotton. 

In any section of the country one must study the adapt- 
ability of his soil and climate to grasses, for there are few 
that succeed equally well in all parts of the country. 
Near all the larger cities of the Middle and Northern 
and Central Western States, where the interest of the 
farmers is in selling hay in the city markets, there 
is no grass in this country that has or probably ever 
will take the place of Timothy. 

In all the sections named, Timothy 
Timothy ,.. 

(Phleum pratense) is the great hay grass. Not 

because it makes the best hay, for in our opinion there are 



276 Practical Farming 

grasses that make better hay, but because the market 
demands it and the market knows it and does not know 
other hay to any extent. And to-day thousands of tons 
of baled timothy hay are shipped to the southern cities 
from the central west, while the farmers right around 
there are wasting their land in cotton where they could 
produce better hay for their home market and get higher 
prices for it than in any other part of the country. 

Timothy is a grass for a cool climate and a moist clay 
soil. It is a shallow rooting grass, and soon burns out in 
a hot climate and warm soil. It is not a good pasture 
grass, not because animals are not fond of it, for they are, 
but because of its shallow rooting it is soon destroyed by 
pasturing. But on suitable soils and in a suitable cHmate 
there is no grass that gives heavier crops. While good 
crops can be grown on strong upland loam soil, the grass 
does not last so long there as on the moist low lands hke 
river bottoms, which are more naturally adapted to mead- 
ows. Timothy, from its shallow rooting character and 
little sod-making, is more exhaustive on the soil than 
grasses that make a larger root and return more humus- 
making material to the soil. One of its advantages is that 
it will wait on the farmer, for while many other grasses 
get worthless soon after flowering, timothy still has some 
value when near maturity, though, of course, makes better 
hay cut at an earlier stage. 

The common practice is to associate it with clover. 
This of course helps the land, but the timothy being a 
late grass, is not in shape for mowing till after the clover 
has long passed its best stage. Some of the earher grasses 
are far better to sow with clover if the clover hay is valued. 



The Grasses 277 



Timothy lacks bottom foliage and should always have 
some late-growing low grass like red top associated with 
it to help out the crop. 

But timothy, with all its faults has such a hold on the 
farmers and the markets that it will probably remain the 
standard hay grass of a large part of the country. But 
where the hay is to be fed on the farm and is not the money 
crop of the farm, we would grow legumes and grasses that 
go better along with clover. 

Orchard Grass {Dactylis glomerata) has 
^^ ^ become in many parts of the country a popu- 

lar meadow and pasture grass. It is one of 
the grasses that seems to be equally at home north and 
south. It is better adapted to high land than timothy is. 
It is a strong rooting grass and withstands drought better 
than timothy, and from its strong rooting nature is a far 
better pasture grass. Its name, orchard grass, comes from 
the fact that it thrives well in the shade of trees. Orchard 
grass is one of the earliest grasses, and gives a bite in 
the pasture earlier in spring than any other grass except 
perhaps, the meadow foxtail. After the first mowing in 
spring, it gives a stronger aftermath than most other 
grasses, and if this is left on the land the strong tussocks 
that this grass makes, keep the under part green in winter 
and affords a great deal of grazing even in the most severe 
weather, particularly in the South. The faults of this 
grass are its habit of growing in bunches or tussocks and 
not covering the ground densely. Though it grows tall 
and shows a large crop apparently the harvest is apt to be 
lighter than the appearance owing to this scattering habit. 
It is a very early grass, and to make good hay it must be 



278 Practical Farming 

mown as soon as the blossom heads appear, for if left 
later the hay deteriorates rapidly in quality. Since the 
season for the hay harvest with this grass comes so early 
it is apt to be a time when rains are frequent, and a farmer 
with a large area in orchard grass will often have a great 
deal of difficulty in saving the crop in the best condition. 

Its habit of growing in tussocks can be remedied by 
mixing it with other grasses, and for hay making we 
would never sow orchard grass alone. For pasture pur- 
poses we have always mixed it with red top and blue 
grass, using ten pounds of the orchard grass, five pounds 
of the red top, and ten pounds of the Kentucky blue grass 
per acre, since heavy seeding is the most economical way 
to get a dense sod. On strong clay soil, and especially on 
a limestone soil, the pasture will finally be mainly of the 
blue grass, and as the blue grass is slower in germination 
and spreading, the orchard grass shelters it and favors its 
increase, while the quick germination of the red top gives 
some pasturage before the others are ready when the red 
top on high land gradually passes out. 

Being an early grass, the orchard grass associates better 
with red clover than timothy does, since both are ready 
for the mower at the same time. Orchard grass will 
thrive, too, on land of a clayey nature that is too thin for 
timothy, and from its strong rooting nature, it makes a 
greater mass of vegetable matter to turn under than 
timothy does. Its chief value, we think, is in the forma- 
tion of permanent pastures. 

Red Top {Agrostis vulgaris) seems par- 
ticularly adapted to low land in the Southern 
States, and while it grows well on uplands, it is not so 



The Grasses 279 



permanent in its character there as on moist low lands. 
This grass has a number of common names in various 
parts of the country. In Pennsylvania it is generally 
known as herds grass, while in some other sections that 
name is applied to timothy. It is also known as fine top 
and bent grass. Dairymen in many sections consider it 
indispensable in giving a fine flavor to the butter. Being 
a late grass, it associates well with timothy, and as both 
thrive on moist low land, it is a good practice to sow some 
red top with timothy to give that grass a more leafy 
bottom. 

Red top makes fine hay, but not a heavy crop. It is 
the easiest hay to cure of all the grasses. In very hot and 
dry weather, we have mown red top in the morning, 
tedded it thoroughly, and put it in the stack the same 
evening. This is an advantage in showery weather. It 
makes a far heavier crop on bottom lands in the South 
than it does in the Middle and Northern States, and 
should have more attention from the Southern farmers. 
This is the finest of all grasses for the 
ermu a South. Botanically it is Cynodon dactylon, 

and is found in warm climates all over the 
world. Owing to the difiiculty of eradicating it when it 
gets into cultivated grounds it has long been regarded as 
a pest by the cotton growers. But since it seeds very 
sparingly, it is easy to keep it in bounds and to use it on a 
cotton farm as a permanent pasture. It is entirely a hot 
weather grass, and browns with the first frosts, but when 
used as a pasture it can be mixed with the Texas blue 
grass {Poa arachnifera), which is a winter growing grass 
and has the same running habit as the Bermuda. With 



280 Practical Farming 

this mixture a summer and winter pasture can easily be 
maintained in the South. This grass will not stand the 
winters north of Virginia, and on its northern limit it 
assumes the character of a pest to wheat growers, and does 
not have the value that it has in the South. From central 
Georgia south it attains great value as a meadow grass, 
as it can be mown several times during the summer. 
Owing to the scarcity of seed, Bermuda grass is commonly 
grown from cuttings of the running stems, commonly 
called roots in the South. The land is well prepared in 
the spring, and the stems are run through a feed cutter 
set to cut rather long. Furrows are marked out and the 
cuttings scattered along these and covered with a small 
plow and then rolled. These furrows should be about 
two feet apart, and the grass will spread over the entire 
surface the first summer. 

As a pasture grass the Bermuda has the great advantage 
that it will grow on the most sandy soil, and is perfectly 
indifferent to the hot sun and drought. In fact it will not 
grow in the shade at all, and hence is not adapted to shady 
places. But it furnishes the best of pasture when other 
grasses are burnt up and worthless, and it is adapted to 
every kind of soil. On a sandy soil it is not hard to 
eradicate it if necessary, as it can be plowed off entirely 
from such a soil in great sheets and raked up and hauled 
off. But from a strong clay soil its eradication is a diffi- 
cult matter. In fact on such a soil, the pasture is greatly 
improved by a spring plowing, harrowing, and rolling to 
cure the hide-bound condition that it may get into. 

The great value of this grass in the South is gradually 
being understood, and if it were more used, the South 



The Grasses 281 



could become as great a pasture country as the blue grass 

region of Kentucky, for in summer it is far better pasturage 

than blue grass anywhere. It has been found of great 

value in Oklahoma and the experiment station there 

advises its use as a pasture grass. But this is probably as 

far north as it will have any value as compared with other 

grasses. But no part of the whole country has a finer 

pasture grass than the South has in Bermuda. 

The botanical genus Poa includes a num- 

„ ber of species that are known as blue grasses. 

Grasses ^ ^ ° 

The best known of these is the Kentucky 
blue grass {Poa pratensis). This is essentially a grass for 
limestone soils, and thrives on these soils as it does on no 
other, though with an occasional application of lime it 
can be kept in good condition on any good clay soil. 
It has acquired its common name from the way it has 
taken possession of the rich limestone soils of central 
Kentucky, and while it thrives on similar soils in various 
other states, its great home is in Kentucky and part of 
Tennessee, and to the fine pasturage it gives there is 
largely due the fame that Kentucky has acquired in the 
raising of fine horses. Its fine hairlike roots penetrate 
deeply into the soil, and enable this grass to recover after 
it has been browned by a long drought, and though appar- 
ently brown and dead, it at once starts into growth with 
the coming of rain. 

Kentucky blue grass is the best grass for lawns from the 
close and ever-green sod it makes, and it is the favorite 
grass for this purpose in all parts of the country where 
there is a good clay soil. It will not thrive on the sandy 
soils of the South, and in fact there needs some shade from 



282 Practical Farming 

the sun even on clay soil. Sown on a southern lawn the 
ever-present Bermuda soon drives it to the shade places 
under the trees which the Bermuda avoids. 

This grass {Poa compressa) is also known 
Blue Grass ^^ Virginia blue grass. It has a great deal 
of the habit of the Bermuda grass, creeping 
by surface and underground stems. It will grow on 
thinner soil than the Kentucky blue grass will, and will 
also thrive on sandy soils. In many parts of Virginia it 
has become a great pest to wheat growers. It has value 
as a pasture grass and as a sod-forming grass to prevent the 
washing of steep hills, but where the Kentucky blue grass 
thrives it has little value. On thin hill lands it can be 
profitably used as a sheep pasture, and will make a perman- 
ent pasture on lands too thin and poor for other grasses, 
and it thrives in all parts of the country north and south. 
Quite an interest has of late been taken in 
exas ^j^-g gj-g^gg jj^ ^]^g South as a winter-growing 

grass. It is botanically Poa arachnijera. 
Its specific name comes from the spider-web-like hairs 
attached to the seeds, which make them difficult to sow. 
It has the same creeping habit as the Bermuda, and is 
valuable as a mixture with that grass, since, while it burns 
badly in summer it grows green in winter when the Ber- 
muda is brown. In fact one man in North Carolina said 
to me that he found that the colder the weather the greener 
the grass grew. Whether it will ever be of any value 
North is yet to be demonstrated, but the general opinion 
is that it is best adapted to southern conditions and a 
mild winter climate. This grass is a native of western 
Louisiana and eastern Texas, and it is claimed that it 



The Grasses 283 



will be all and more for Texas than Kentucky blue grass 
is for Kentucky. It is of stronger growth than Kentucky 
blue grass, and one writer says that he has seen it grow 
ten inches in ten days, and that the coldest weather does 
not nip it. It almost disappears during the summer 
except in shady places, but starts with the first fall rains 
and cool weather, and will furnish green food all winter 
in all parts of the South. 

With Texas blue grass and Bermuda there is no reason 
why the South should not become a great grazing country, 
for both grow on all sorts of soil from sand to heavy clay. 
Owing to the diflEiculty in sowing the seed it will probably 
be better to plant cuttings of the running stems as in the 
case of Bermuda. These can be had by planting bunches 
of the seed in squares a foot apart in a sort of nursery 
ground, and from the growth of these to get cuttings the 
following fall, for while the Bermuda should be planted in 
spring the Texas blue grass should be planted in the fall. 
The cuttings can be planted in rows in the fall and other 
rows made in the spring between them for planting the 
Bermuda cuttings, and in one season of winter and sum- 
mer they will take possession of the whole land. 

This is another of the Poas, or blue grasses. 
g'tIL^^^^'''^ It is often called foul meadow grass, but the 
generally used name is that we have given, 
and is supposed to be derived from the wild fowl having 
introduced it in a meadow in Dedham, Mass. It is a 
common grass in the Northern States, and is botanically 
Poa serotina. Its chief value is from its adaptabihty to 
low and wet soils. It makes a fine soft hay and a very 
nutritious feed. From its growing in low lands it makes 



284 Practical Farming 

an excellent mixture with red top on such lands. There 
are others of the Poa genus of grasses, but the foregoing 
include all that are of much value to the farmer. 

There is no grass about which there has 
Jo son ^^^^ g^ great a diversity of opinion than the 

grass generally known as Johnson or Means 
grass. It is closely allied to the sorghums and was long 
known as Sorghum halapense, but of late years it has been 
assigned to the genus Andropogon, and is Andropogon 
halapense. It is a tall growing perennial grass that sends 
strong underground stems in every direction and also 
makes seed of large size freely, which are scattered by the 
birds and the overflow of streams so that when the plant 
once gets established in small amount in a section it 
rapidly spreads in every direction and becomes a serious 
pest to the hoed crops. 

Johnson grass is not hardy north of central Virginia, 
and becomes of greater value as we go southward. Of 
its value as a forage crop, there can be but one opinion in 
a soil and climate that suits it, for it makes a nutritious 
hay, though rather coarse, and can be mown three times 
or more in a season. Its aggressive nature is the one 
fault against it. In some sections of Mississippi and 
Alabama, where at first it was considered a curse, the 
general opinion now seems to be that it has been a blessing 
to the country in compeUing the farmers who formerly 
devoted their sole attention to cotton to go into stock 
raising. 

By a thorough plowing and raking of the stems out and 
a careful preparation of the soil, a crop of cotton can be 
grown and the grass comes back at once after the cotton 



The Grasses 285 



is off. The only thing that can subdue it is hard pasturing. 
I have seen pastures in Mississippi where the whole coun- 
try was covered with Johnson grass in which there was 
nothing left but Bermuda grass, the pasturing having 
driven the Johnson grass out completely. But in sections 
where Johnson grass has not yet appeared, I would not 
advise its introduction, since there are grasses that are of 
value in the South which can be kept within bounds, while 
the Johnson grass cannot be restrained from taking the 
whole farm. Where it has become estabHshed the only 
thing for the farmer is to make the best use of the abundant 
forage it affords. 

I was struck at the Mississippi Agricultural College with 
the fact that alfalfa seemed to hold its own among the 
Johnson grass. I was shown there a plot of alfalfa with 
Johnson grass towering above it, but at the time of my 
visit in July, they informed me that the plot had been cut 
three times and was about ready for the fourth cutting, 
and that the presence of the Johnson grass enabled them 
to cure the hay more readily and that the mixture made 
a very valuable hay. With alfalfa flourishing in spite of 
the Johnson grass, that section certainly has a forage crop 
that should make stock raising a very successful pursuit, 
and stock raising is the greatest need of the Southern 
farms. In many cases the entire farms have been aban- 
doned to the grass and the owners are devoting their whole 
attention to cattle and very profitably too. Therefore, while 
I would not advise the introduction of this grass into a grain 
or cotton section, I am ready to admit its great value as a for- 
age crop, but I would prefer to grow what I wanted and not 
be compelled to grow a crop that pushes itself everywhere. 



286 Pr actual Farming 

Paspalum The gonus Faspaluni includes some grasses 

Dilatatum ^^£ ^,^^^^^, ^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^.^ ^j^.^^ ^^^ merely 

pests. This variety, called the hairy Paspalum is a 
native of this country from \'irginia southward. It 
grows from two to five feet high and promises to be a 
valuable grass both for hay and pasture in the South. 
Tramping by cattle seems to improve it and it makes a 
tough and enduring sod and has become greatly valued in 
Texas. It is best increased by the running stems as the 
seed has a low germinating power. As a pasture grass 
for the South I consider it far inferior to Bennuda, but it 
will make a heavier hay crop on moist land, where it is 
best suited. 

This has sometimes been called Louisiana grass, and is 

found in all the Gulf States, and has crept north as far as 

central North Carolina in small amount. 

ai,pa um j^ |^^^ _^j^^^ ^^^^^^^^ called carpet grass from its 

Platycaule ^ ^ 

close matting character. It grows best on 

low moist land, but is also said to stand droughty condi- 
tions fully as well as Bermuda. It seems to be a valuable 
pasture grass in the sandy soils of Florida and the Gulf 
Coast, but northward the Bermuda will be a great deal 
better. 

This is an annual grass commonly kno^^'n as crab grass 

and fall grass, and in all the northern parts of the country 

is esteemed a pest, especially in its persistent 

^ ... habit of i:;ettinc: on the lawns in the late 

banguihale ^ '^ 

summer and crowding out the perennial 
grasses. But in the South it attains a great value as a 
hay crop. On the heavily fertilized land of the market 
gardens in the South Atlantic States, the crab grass comes 



The Grasses 287 



in after the early vegetable crops have been shipped and 
often makes a crop of two tons of hay per acre without 
any sowing. This grass is never cultivated, but always 
appears after the crops have been cultivated in the South, 
and is then found of value, and the hay, if cut at the 
proper stage, is equal to the best timothy hay. It is a 
common practice on the truck farms in the South after the 
crop of string beans has been shipped, to plow the vines 
under and smooth the ground and then let the crab grass 
have possession for the fall hay crop. 

This is a coarse annual grass that delights 
Panicum -^^ ^.j^j^ moist land and is sometimes used as 

Crus Galli . . , , 

a hay crop, and makes a nutritive hay that 

stock are fond of. Efforts have been made by some seeds- 
men to boom a variety of this grass under the name of 
" Billion-dollar" grass. But for the Northern States there 
are many grasses that arc far better for the farmer that 
are of a permanent and perennial character. This annual 
grass may have some value in the South. 

There are a number of other Panicums that may have 
value in particular sections, but as a class they have not a 
high forage-making value. In the high mountain section 
of North Carolina, a perennial Panicum^ Panicum clan- 
dcstinum has acquired a local reputation under the name 
of fodder grass. It is a hardy but coarse-growing grass, 
and where it succeeds better grass can be grown. 

Setaria Italica, commonly known as Hun- 

Hungarian garian grass or German millet, is a native of 

Asia, which has been extensively introduced 

in all the countries of Europe and America. It is an 

annual grass of strong growth on fertile soil. It varies 



288 Practical Farming 

greatly in character, though all the varieties belong to one 
species. Recently a variety has been introduced from 
Japan that has been found to make heavier crops than 
the older sort, and we have had seed heads sent us from 
Korea that were as large as a large ear of corn. It is 
likely that these Asiatic varieties will generally supersede 
the older varieties. It makes a heavy crop of hay, but if 
the hay is to be fed to horses, it should be cut as soon as in 
bloom, for if the seed are allowed to ripen the hay will be 
dangerous to horses because of the indigestible nature of 
the seed. The hay, too, is of less value if the seed ripen. 

This rank-growing grass has been boomed 
ennese um -^ ^j^j^ country at various times as a forage 
plant under the names of pearl millet, cat- 
tail millet, and Egyptian millet, and of late an effort has 
been made to push the seed on the market under the old 
obsolete botanical name of Pencillaria. It makes an 
immense growth or green forage on rich and moist land, 
but as a hay crop has not a great value, being hard to 
cure and making a very heavy draft on the fertihty of the 
soil. For the average farmer the annual legumes, like cow 
peas and soja beans, are far superior to any of the millets. 

Sorghum vulgare includes not only the 
saccharine sorghums from which syrup is 
made, but a great many others not of a saccharine nature 
and known variously as Millo maize, Kaffir corn, Dourra, 
and broom com. The variety known as Kaffir corn is 
now largely grown in the Western States both for forage 
and for seed. The seed has a feeding value similar to 
that of Indian corn, and the whole sorghum family have 
a capacity for resisting droughty conditions better than 



The Grasses 289 



most other cereals of the grass family. Hence the Kaffir 
corn has attained a great popularity in the semi-arid West. 
Broom corn is the only member of the sorghum family 
that is grown for commercial purposes other than feed, 
and even with this the seed have a feeding value. 

Of late years the saccharine sorghums have been largely 
used as forage plants both for sowing broadcast for hay or 
for planting for maturity and harvesting for cured stover 
like Indian corn. All domestic animals are fond of the 
sweet sorghums, and they should be more largely grown 
for feeding. Cultivated to maturity, the stalks can be 
shocked and will retain their succulent character for feed- 
ing during the winter, though they will not cure dry like 
corn stalks. But keeping well in the shocks they can be 
fed during the winter with good results. For this purpose 
the crop should be planted in rows just as though grown 
for syrup making, and should be cut at the same stage of 
ripeness. The stalks can be cut by machinery and fed 
with very good results to any animals. Hogs are fond of 
sorghum and thrive on it either mature or in the field sown 
broadcast. 

The genus Festuca contains a number of valuable species 

of grasses for hay making. One of the best species is 

_ Festuca elatior, known as tall meadow fescue, 

The Fescues 

Randall grass, and tall fescue. It is a 

European grass that has long been cultivated in this 

country. It is a strong-growing perennial grass growing 

two to four feet high, and is much relished by cattle 

green and dry. A smaller growing variety has been 

called Festuca pratensis, but it is merely a variety of this 

species. It is as early as orchard grass and associates 



290 Practical Farming 

very well with it, but it thrives on low moist lands better 

than orchard grass does and is at its best on such soils. 

It is a very valuable grass both for pasture and hay, and 

thrives excellently on hmestone soils to which it seems to 

be especially adapted. Festuca ovina, sheep fescue, is a 

dense low-growing tufted grass that succeeds on thin hilly 

soils, and has been found well adapted to sheep pastures. 

It is also useful as a mixture in lawn grasses, but is of no 

value as a hay grass. 

_ The Brome grasses include the Bromus 

Bromus . . 

secalinus which is commonly called chess or 

cheat, and by many farmers it is imagined that wheat and 

oats when killed down by frost will turn to cheat. But 

the fact is that the cheat is a distinct grass of a very hardy 

nature and the seeds germinate and grow when the cereal 

is destroyed and the farmer seeing green plants there 

thinks it is the grain till it heads out in its true character. 

There are some of the family that have acquired a 
reputation as valuable grasses. One of these is Bromus 
unioloides, known as rescue grass. This is a winter- 
growing grass in the South, and has some value there, 
but none northward. 

Bromus inermis, or smooth brome grass has of late years 
been found to be a valuable grass for pasture in the semi- 
arid sections of the West. It stands drought and forms a 
dense sod. In the more humid sections of the East it has 
not been found of much value. 

The Z^/fMW5, or rye grasses, are hay plants 

of much value. Lolium perenne or Italian 

rye grass. Hardly in our chmates deserves the name of 

perennial, as it is usually of short duration. But sown 



The Grasses 291 



early in the fall alone, it will make a good hay crop 

the following summer, but does not last much longer. 

The true perennial rye grass, or English rye grass, 

is far more persistent than the Italian, and is truly 

perennial; but is inclined, like orchard grass, to grow in 

tussocks. 

Loliunt tetnulentum, or spiked darnel, is a worthless grass 

that has a reputation for being poisonous to stock, and 

should be eradicated. In some sections of the country, 

this has the name of cheat, and is the plant that some 

imagine the cereals to turn into. 

Agropyrum glaucum is the blue joint or 
Agropyrum . . , . 

blue stem of the western prairies where it 

is highly valued as a component of the prairie hay. It has 
the same creeping and spreading habit of the Agropyrum 
repens, or couch grass of the East. This last has always 
been esteemed a pest and a weed, but it has value as a 
hay grass, though, from its aggressive habit Uke the John- 
son grass of the South, it should be treated as a weed and 
not allowed to take possession of the land to the exclusion 
of better grasses. 

Commonly known as wild oats. This grass is very 
common in California, and it has been thought by many 

to be a degenerate form of the cultivated 
Avena fatua 

oats. It makes good forage when cut at the 

right stage, but may become a pest in grain fields. It is 

hardly worthy of cultivation, but may be saved where it 

grows naturally. 

We have given merely a sketch of the leading grasses 

that come within the notice of cultivators in various parts 

of the country. Some of these have a value in Hmited 



292 Practical Farming 

localities or on special soils, and among them the farmer 
can find those best suited to his use, for hay making. 

For the making of permanent pastures no 
ermanen ^^^ grass is usually best, except in sections 
Hke the blue grass region of Kentucky, 
where that grass takes possession almost to the exclusion 
of others. But in all parts of the countr}- there is a grow- 
ing impression among the best farmers that it is not wise 
to pasture the cultivated lands, and that for the best 
results in cropping, the fann should have a piece of land 
set apart to be kept perpetually in grass. For such a pas- 
ture a mixture of grasses and verj' liberal seeding should 
be used, for the establishment of a dense sod at once is an 
important matter. 

For the South, as we have suggested, there is no better 
mixture than Bermuda and Texas blue grass. But north 
of lower Virginia, these grasses have not the value that 
they have further south. Then the mixture that will be 
best will depend very largely on the character of the soil. 
At times the farmer ^^ishes to devote to pasture a piece of 
low land Hable to be at times overflowed. In such case 
we would suggest a mixture of ten pounds of tall meadow 
fescue, five pounds of red top, and five pounds of fowl 
meadow grass per acre. 

On high and thinner soils and not on Umestone land 
we would suggest a mixture of ten poimds of orchard 
grass, five pounds of red top. ten pounds of Canada blue 
grass, and five pounds of white clover per acre. On 
strong limestone clay loam we would make the rruxture 
ten pounds of orchard grass, five pounds of red top, and 
ten pounds of Kentucky blue grass per acre. 



The Grasses 293 



As a rule farmers usually find it a matter of economy 

to sow grass seed with some cereal crop, either wheat or 

- ^ rye, in the fall or oats in the spring. But 

Nurse Crops r & 

where immediate effect is wanted, as in the 

case of sowing a permanent pasture, we would prefer to 

sow the grass and clover alone. When grass seed are 

sown with a cereal crop we would, of course, add some 

red clover in the spring as a means for benefiting the land, 

and making a better hay for homed cattle. 

Where grass seed are sown alone, they are better sown 
in the autumn than in the spring, and the soil should have 
the most thorough preparation. After sowing, if the soil 
is quite dry, a smoothing harrow should be run over the 
seeding and then rolled, but the rolhng should be omitted 
if the soil is moist, and on hilly land that is inclined to 
wash, we would never use the roller, for there will always 
be left unpressed spots that will gather the water and 
wash in rain storms. 

Permanent pastures are too often neglected and weeds 
and briars allowed to grow. The mowing machine is a 
useful implement for keeping the pasture in order by 
keeping all wild growth cut off before seed are formed. 
Then too, the fertility of the soil must be kept up, for, 
especially when young animals are pastured, they rapidly 
exhaust the phosphates in the soil. It will be found 
profitable to give the pasture an annual dressing of 300 
pounds of raw bone meal and twenty-five pounds of 
muriate of potash per acre, and to scatter the droppings 
with the drag harrow from time to time. In this way the 
product of grass can be kept up and even greatly increased. 

In some parts of the country the broom sedge soon makes 



294 Practical Farming 

its appearance in permanent pastures. When young, this 
grass makes fairly good pasturage, but it soon gets wiry 
and worthless. It is a grass that can abide acid conditions 
in the soil better than other grasses, and if the pasture has' 
an occasional Hming at the rate of twenty bushels of slaked 
lime per acre, say once in five years, there will seldom be 
any appearance of broom sedge. In fact an occasional 
liming is important to any grass and especially to the blue 
grasses. 



CHAPTER XXI 

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS FOR VARIOUS CROPS 

FORMULAS for the making of fertilizing mixtures 
for farm crops must in the nature of things be 
merely suggestive, since soils vary so much in 
their composition and needs, and crops also vary in their 
manurial requirements. 

The student-farmer will study his soil or soils, for often 
the soils are very different in the different fields of the 
same farm. The chemist can give Uttle aid in this matter, 
though he can find out what the composition of your soil 
is, but cannot tell you anything in regard to the availability 
to crops of the materials the soil contains. 

The American farmers are wasting a great deal of 
money in the purchase of commercial fertilizers which 
they could save by a more careful study of the needs of 
their farms, and by using the legume crops for the getting 
of nitrogen that costs so much in a complete fertihzer. 
We beheve that the day is rapidly approaching when the 
American farmers will abandon for any of the usual farm 
crops the purchase of complete fertihzers, or those con- 
taining the three important ingredients, nitrogen, phos- 
phoric acid, and potash, and will by short rotations get 
through the legume crops all the nitrogen they need, aided 
by the home-made manures made from the feeding of the 
legume forage, and will devote themselves in an intelligent 

29s 



296 Practical Farming 

way to the preservation of the mineral matters of their 
soils by the use of the cheaper mixtures of phosphoric 
acid and potash, and to a study of their soils to ascertain 
whether they need to buy even both of these. 

Any farmer can ascertain approximately the needs of 
his soil by laying out a series of plots, reserving one on 
which no fertilizer is to be applied, then on another apply- 
ing phosphoric acid alone, on another potash alone, on 
another some form of nitrogen alone. Then on other 
plots make combinations of nitrogen and potash, nitrogen 
and phosphoric acid, potash and phosphoric acid, and 
then a combination of all three. Then by noting the 
results carefully for several seasons he can come very close 
to what the land especially needs and what he need not 
buy. We knew one wheat grower in Maryland who did 
this, and years ago came to the conclusion that phosphoric 
acid was the only thing needed on his land. He there- 
fore adopted a short rotation of crops with clover on the 
land frequently, and in a few years found that his wheat 
crop increased from fifteen bushels per acre to an average 
of forty bushels year after year, while he used only plain 
dissolved South Carolina rock phosphate on his wheat, 
and got through the clover all the nitrogen he needed. 

There are some crops Kke the Irish potato which, when 
grown as an early market crop demand special fertiliza- 
tion. Tobacco, too, is another crop on which we cannot 
afford to omit a complete fertihzer. But for the ordinary 
grain crops of the farm I feel sure that the man who farms 
right, and works his land in a short rotation with legume 
crops coming in frequently on the land, need never buy 
an ounce of nitrogen in any form. 



Commercial Fertilizers for Various Crops 297 

In one of the bulletins of the Ohio Experiment Station, 
we find the following statement in regard to their experi- 
ments in the maintenance of fertihty and the use of 
fertiUzers. "While, therefore, these experiments demon- 
strate the possibility of producing a regular and certain 
increase in the yield of cereal crops by the use of a com- 
plete chemical fertilizer, yet they show that if such fertil- 
izers are to be used in Ohio in the production of cereal 
crops with any prospect of profit and as a part of a regular 
system of agriculture, that system must provide for the 
accumulation in the soil of the largest possible quantity 
of organic nitrogen, through the culture, in short rotations, 
of plants which have the power of obtaining nitrogen from 
sources inaccessible to the cereals." And in another of 
their bulletins the same station added later: "At the 
present prices of cereal crops and of fertihzing materials 
respectively the profitable production of corn, wheat, and 
oats upon chemical or commercial fertilizers is a hopeless 
undertaking, unless these crops be grown in a systematic 
rotation with clover or a similar nitrogen-storing crop; 
and the poorer the soil in natural fertility the smaller the 
probabiHty of profitable crop production by means of 
artificial fertilizers." 

Hence, as we have uniformly insisted, the true use of 
the commercial fertilizers is to increase the production of 
the humus-making and nitrogen-storing legume crops, 
and if these are neglected the dependence of the farmer 
on commercial fertihzers will hardly be profitable. 

Many of the experiment stations have spent years in 
the study of the manurial needs of the various crops, and 
have devised formulas for mixing the fertilizers for each. 



298 Practical Farming 

This has caused many farmers to imagine that for every 
crop planted or sown they must have a specially devised 
fertilizer mixture, and they have gotten the idea from what 
many station directors have said that the only use for the 
commercial fertilizers is for the increase of the particular 
crop to which they are applied, without any regard to the 
efifect on the future productiveness of the land. 

It is against this notion that I have fought unceasingly 
for many years. This plan of using fertilizers merely to 
get a Uttle more to sell off the land through their direct 
influence, has brought poverty to thousands of acres, and 
has made thousands of farmers poor. 

While investigations may show what are the special 
food needs of certain crops, they do not mean that we can 
always profitably supply those needs direct by the applica- 
tion of artificial fertilizers only, nor do they show that the 
apphcation of the needed plant food on a poor soil that is 
deficient in humus will produce the result desired. In 
fact, as the experiments at the Ohio Station show plainly, 
such application can never prove profitable. While on 
the potato crop it will pay to use a complete fertilizer in a 
liberal manner, even there it will depend largely for its 
results on the presence or absence of humus-making mat- 
ter in the soil, and will have a far better effect if a clover 
sod is turned for the potatoes. We give some of the 
formulas advised by the experiment stations for the potato 
crop, while those for grain crops are, we suppose, intended 
for use where there has been no legume crop preceding. 

The following formulas have been suggested by the 
Rhode Island Station for the home mixing of fertihzers 
for the potato crop : 



Commercial Fertilizers for Various Crops 299 

Pounds Per Cent. 

Acid phosphate 850 \ . »t,-», „„ 

Nitrate of Soda lio v.VIHina Pn/.l l^ 

Muriate of Potash 300 Yielding Potash ..8.0 

Cotton-seed Meal 700 ) ' ^^^>^- ^^°^- A"'^- • • ^ • ° 

The stations found that a higher quaHty of potatoes 
could be made by the following, in which high-grade 
sulphate of potash is used instead of the muriate : 

Pounds Per Cent. 
High Grade Sulphate of Potash . .325 V 

Nitrate of Soda 100 | | Nitrogen 4.0 

Sulphate of Ammonia 100 ) Yielding j Potash 8.0 

Dissolved Bone-black 7So| I Avail. Phos. Acid. . . 7.0 

Cotton-seed Meal 725 / 



Or for equally good quality of tubers the following : 

Pounds Per Cent. 

Cotton-seed Meal 800 \ , m,>,«^»« 

gi.S;.»l;a°' ^°^:::. ::::;;: vi.idi„. fS": : : : . . . : ::d:i 

Acid Phosphate 700 ) ' Avail. Phos. Acid.. .5.2 

Which we consider an improvement. In all fertihzers for 
the potato crop especially on the light soil that is best for 
that crop the main needs are for phosphoric acid and 
potash, when a clover sod has been plowed for the potato 
crop. In that case the nitrogen may be omitted except a 
little readily available nitrate of soda to give the crop an 
early start. But in no case would we make the percentage 
of potash lower than lo per cent, of the whole. Gardeners 
will find this last formula well suited to all vegetable 
crops. 

But as we have more than once urged, with our grain 
crops, if a good short rotation of crops is used and clover 
or other legume comes in frequently on the land the only 
artificial fertihzers we would use are phosphates and 
potash. 



300 Practical Farming 

SOME GENERAL CONCLUSIONS ABOUT FERTILIZERS 

The mixtures on the market known as commercial fer- 
tilizers are of use in furnishing in a concentrated form the 
three elements that are most generally deficient in old 
cultivated soils, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. 
These are furnished in combination with other matters, 
since the pure elements cannot be used. 

The notion that some have formed that the commercial 
fertilizers are merely stimulants, has arisen from the in- 
judicious way in which they have been used merely to get 
a little more sale crop from the soil by adding a dribble of 
the fertilizer, which is all taken up by the crop and the soil 
further drawn upon so that the soil is left poorer than 
before. Where Uberally used to increase the growth of 
the renovating and nitrogen-storing crops of the legume 
nature, these fertilizers can be used for the increase of the 
fertility of the soil. 

Lime and plaster, the sulphate of lime, are more in the 
nature of stimulants, since they serve to unlock plant food 
already in the soil so that plants can use them, and they 
bring about changes in the mechanical texture of the soil, 
and are active in the promotion of the nitrification of 
organic matter in the soil, and thus enable the plants to 
get the nitrogen in an available form. Their office in the 
soil is as reagents rather than fertilizers. 

An appHcation of fertilizers to every crop grown may 
show an apparent profit, but an accurate account with the 
crops will show that such a course is wasteful and ex- 
pensive, and that the true use of the commercial fertiHzers 
is to keep up the store of phosphoric acid and potash in 



Commercial Fertilizers for Various Crops 301 

the soil so that the legumes will do the rest, and if these are 
well supplied with these mineral fertilizers, there will be 
little need for other fertilizing beyond what can be done 
by the feeding of the legumes and the appHcation of the 
manure thus made. 

Farming continuously with one clean cultivated crop 
year after year, no matter how liberally the fertilizers are 
used, will result in the depreciation of the soil through the 
using up of the humus and the washing of the bare land 
in winter. This has been the result in the cotton lands 
of the South, and will be the result of single continuous 
cropping anywhere. 

The soils of the cotton belt have lost fertility faster 
through the washing of the bare land in winter than 
through the summer cultivation. No land that has been 
in a clean cultivated crop during the summer should be 
left without a winter growing cover crop during the cold 
season. This crop will take up the nitrates that form in 
the soil and they can then be returned by turning under 
the cover crop in spring. 

FertiHzers will always be more efficient on soils abound- 
ing in humus or organic decay than in those that are 
destitute of this, mainly because of the moisture-retaining 
nature of the humus which causes the solution of the 
fertiHzers appKed. 

The bulletin of the Ohio Station has the following 
remarks: "At the prices at which mixed fertilizers are 
sold in Ohio, the attempt to furnish all the nitrogen, as 
well as all the phosphoric acid and potash required to 
produce increase in cereal crops grown in continuous cul- 
ture has invariably resulted in pecuniary loss, although 



302 Practical Farming 

very large increase of crop has been produced. The rota- 
tion of cereals with nitrogen-gathering crops, therefore, 
has been shown to be absolutely essential to the profitable 
use of commercial fertilizers in any form." 
To which we earnestly say Amen. 



USEFUL TABLES FOR CONSTANT 
REFERENCE 



CHAPTER XXII 

USEFUL TABLES FOR CONSTANT REFERENCE 

WE have compiled the following tables from 
various rehable sources, and beheve that they 
will be found useful for reference. 
The experiments made at the Pennsylvania Agricultural 
Experiment Station show the total dry matter and plant 
food in various forage crops : 



304 



Useful Tables for Constant Reference 305 



B 


<s — r^ r~^ mvo — c^ itn 


<N t^ -^ -^ O^ cr>00 00 rr\ 


o 


mO OOOvO tTC^O^O 


— ttoo m \o c~- "^ r^oo 


r2 
'G 
< 




00 rfN n t^\0 O — VO ITS 
G^O rrN<N O^— \0 "^t~^ 


S 


mvo m r^ r^oo oo rr\ o 


a^ tt r^oo m rfN. c^oo i^ 

rr\— (N I^'^r^— O "^ 
<s - - ~ - - - 


.a I- 

an 


- \0 I^ ^00 \X) rr\ - r^ 


00 fAir\MvO u-^L^^■^Lr^ 


J2 
< 


O — 0"^NMOO"^ 


P 


t-^OO r^ rrsOO O^ O ^ - 
rr\ — (S — rATf— OOO 
O (S rrs t^ -rr rr\ O^vo cs 


C^ -^vO N t^v£) ITS TfvO 


2 
13 

o 


(SMO^OOvDi^O 

-00 xf - vo 'too ^ "^ 


— — OOO C>— ^ir\ — 









-a 

u 

'B 



43 






O 



B 

d 



(^ :: 



r-<i-r\r^C^rj rrsOOO 
-^ i>. r^ Tfoo O r^^ 



1) OJ 

> > 



• '^ o ^ 

• O. (U ^ O) o o 

cj irt -^ S:* >; 7j o 

^ .§ ^ g 'S 11 

Cj_ l»^ 1/1 t/1 ^ ;> ro 



OOOOOOOO 
cr>t/lt/)t/5c/^(/^(/lt/) 
OOOOOOOO 

cccccccc 



Ha3 
t3 



306 



Practical Farming 



a 


(U 


^ 


^ 








>-, 










en 


:3 


o 


en 


o 


13 


i-t 




13 


-r) 


d 


3 


o3 


O 


<u 


^ 






X5 


ri 


4-5 


M 


13 


^ 






t/j 




(1) 


(U 




Ui 




o 


C 


fc! 






<-i-i 


M 

^ 


(U 








ID 


o 

4-> 


T3 


^ 


;3 
o 


2 

CI 




(U 


C3 


biD 



% § . 

o ^ 03 
bC.S 3^ 

^ I 
bC_3 

Oj 



N 



(L> 






a, 
W 

bO 
U 



O 



o 

Oh 






O 






Co 


\0 O^u <^ — Orr\fr\rr\t^Tj- 
l/^ iTN ^3 rj- l/^ r^ C^v© t> O "O 

d ^ - - M 






O fA - 


O M 


o^ -rr u^ N ITS d o c^oo r-^^ 


VD « <S irxiTNrrNrri— rrs(T\C^ 


4-> 

CL, 




4 ^ ^ '^ rA Tf rr*^ Tt '^ « 


S o 
o< 


<N — NVOOO — C^rAC^ — 

- t^ c^ r^ r-- c^oo tj- tj- (s n-\ 


(s - - cs m n "O 


CM 




(^ S ?^ t->vo r-. 
c^ rt c« « r^^ 


Tf (S - M 


HH - f^ 


t. o 


r^vO i^C^<N0O rrs — 00 <S — 


C^v^ LrsfTiTTirsC^Ti-vcvO ri 




























• 








. c 


Hickory. . . 
Rock elm. . 
Red oak. . . 
Butternut. 

Wnlnnt 


Cherry .... 

Pear 

Plum 

Peach 

Quince. . . . 
Grape trimr 



Useful Tables for Constant Reference 307 

i:: ^g-^ ::::::::: °^^a> 

^ ^ 2 S ::::::::: H ^ ^-S 
o 3 ^ p • 



|m |s.2 ::::::::: g^2S 

fro hSo ^^^o 



4=! 

rn 


C3 

o 




rt 


o 




9 

rft 


13 


- 


1) 


M 




43 







-t-> 






(rf 


tn 


rn 


^ 
-i-> 


<4-l 

o 


a 


U 


en 

0) 


0) 


«+-i 


bO 




1) 


a 


M-l 




(L) 


o 



i-i2 fair! .. ^-.dc^oi 

^2i ^^§ ::::::::: i-|8 

£i| ri^--^ :::::::::^'^d-§ 

,„-S *^.aw)PH ::^::-:-s- >::?^2a; 

wu^^ :SaH-^a 

§.1 ^^'B ^ I a § 

a. CO -iJ Jj5 6 co ^ 



308 



Practical Farming 



c 

(U . . . . 

O bo K "^ C5 



OS 



!^ O O 



C - - 
a> 4-; 

jj 3 u o 



rt 



C -C 

p I- 

o 



rt 



<u ■ 

+-• 
<L> 



p3 O) O) 

j= "^ "^ 






1) (U 



'bcj 



lU (U 






-o c C 

<U ZI^ C ^ ^ 

o 









00 

d 






— X2 

o 



r3 



>^ on 



= C 



o 
rt .2 



:i — — 'C CI. 

E .ti .t: 3 3 






4)< 



^'^ 



c3 



OhS 



fA rr\ ff\00 — irs^O v£) O -^ u-\\£i tT O 

ddoooooo--oood 



LTN C^ Lr\ (Ts O^vD O^OO (y- rfs rf\ O — 

d d d d d d d d d d d d d d 



66666666000666 



^ : 


rr\ • 


- VO 00 N • 


^ 


"T • 


"^ 


M M <N (S rr\ • 


1-^ 



-O^-VOOO — -^OOi/NNQOO 
v^ — -.r^^l^^f^^— C^<SOO — 0000 

00 (N N rr\ (S ""l- rr\\0 ir\ rf ca O >- — 
r^OO v^ 00 vi3 t^ I>M3 r^ t>^ 00 00 00 






O - 



o § i: T3 



rt 



O +J 



bO 

,>. vj aj ^-i L- 

o 



> > 

> o o 

o <-> <-> 






Useful Tables for Constant Reference 309 



1-. o 



O vO — <S rr\ t^ (TN LTsOO O i^n "> ^ Q 

d o o d o - - o d d o d o d 



ooooooooo-oooo 



■^t^(S ■^(S^iJ -n""^— irs-^(S t^m 

odddoodo-doodd 



^O rA ■"^ ITS 
C^ O^ O"- "^ 



O — «- « 



O O — C^Qv"- ir\ir\0 OvO trvrAO 
<S \T\CC w (-<^T^L^^(^^— -^Tl-t^— ITS 

00 t^ i>oo r-^ i>.oo 00 t^oo oo t^ i> t^ 



D 



<U 



3 



c 

« Cu 

„ 4J <U 4J -O — 

^ CL-o X2 oj aJ ^ 
-i: ^ ^ _, </5 ti o 
rt ^ V. rt V. • — ^ 

< u CO CO n: i:^ >- 



^ O , ,. 



4) <U 

he bc 

OS t^ 



rt i" 



E 
o 



u, i:^ a- cj cj < 



•4-1 








1 


)5-S 


c> o o 


O rt 


00 -^ I^ 






V. o 

0^ 


O — fA 


• "0 








h< 


Tt" O^ ITS 


tr\ (S iTN 


S^S 


O O O 


(^f 




Q^ 




-y' c 






\^ rrvfii 


r^o -4- 


^^g 


1-^ ^-1 fci^ 


x; 








<1 






— Tf rrs 


c 


O^ t^ ir\ 


o 


■^ mvo 


Wi 




(U 




0. 




tJ £ 


ir\ N VO 


)n6 


00 - o 








r^ o^vo 






fi,S 
























-0 










■u 










o 










Ci4 










"O 










g 


^ ^ 




^ 


ss 




W 


"? o 




& 


g c 




P 








T3 T3 0) 




O o -^ 












c c « 




>- >- o 




O O 0) 




c_ 


)<w 


H 


1 



310 



Practical Farming 






O fA N — — — <S 



i)<3 



O^ O i^ t^ rrsvO rA — O O <S "^vO VO "> irsOO li^ « O t^ 

dddoddoooddddd ooooddo 



eL,:2: 



"^ fA O^OO rA r^ m ir\ ir\ rf 
LTsfS — — \^0<sr^OrA 



r» « « M N 



OOO -^r^O^rAMVOOO <S tTO 
(X) — rAirstAC^Tj-— o O^fs r>. 



c5 5 

0) 3 



t^ rj-^D C^ ii-\ r^ lAOO rAOO rAfA— I^rAt^rA'T 
Q> O t~>. — 00 t~>> r^-OO O 00 "^ "^ O^OO ir\ la — — 



rA O^ 



p 


4_l 


o 


<u 


H 


rs 


£ 


b 


o 


(1) 




in 




OJ 


4_» 


c 


<u 


n 


— 


O- 






-C >. 



W tiJ3J= 






3 3 



3= OS 
f- (/) ir ra — 

S rt p x; -^ 

.3.><.><'^ E 1^ g S=^ 



^ ^ ^ 



^ a; 
o £ 



bCJ= 
^ l5 



>^ 



' .;:; u. ^ 'i' eg '*' 4> 

:ho^sh:scu 



3 -^ 

J2 »- 

1) 

<U > 

c o 



OS 



>, 









•^ O "-* O 

O O C O 

E <u S aJ 

E • - E --^ 



Useful Tables for Constant Reference 311 



ir\ -^vo o (s 00 O 



n — « M — ~ 



•-OrfN— Tt(S0000>-0 



a)< 



ir\ LTs t^ •^ iTN^sO ''1" "^ r^OO "H"^ 



o t^ r» o 00 o r^ 

rr\ a — r^ N (N O 



OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 



(1,2; 



<S 00 rr\VO O M iLr\ir\OvO00 rr\ — — O^ C^\0 N O^ — t^ 
o o^v£) Tf— fAr^o^r^o^w — rrio ir\r^ -^vd tj- tj- t^ 

— — MMMN"->-c<«Orr\— — OOOOO — — 







o o 


rr\ u-N rr\ 


— 00 u^^ 

00 — N r-< 


O Tf 


rfN r^ r^ 


00 ^ 


00 o 


\^ M LTN 


roi r^ (r^ -rf 


\o I^ 



u o 



N fAr^C^cl O O itnC^O iTsvO "^00 VD ir\ — O O O O 
<N ■^— rrstrNfTNO O^ moo vo r^"^0 irsO\^ O O^rrsO 

00 r^fS O — \,0 mO r^u^o^c^— rr\(S0O I>0^— •'^u-s 



O 

o {H 



_4J > 

O <ri 






C 
"o 

■« 3 O 

on cA) -J 



?= c c .^2 t^ 



2 -a 
0) oj aj <u aj 

-^ ^ ^-^ -5 > 

•5,.S. ^ t; ^ 

O O O <u o 
CO (/) CJ CO (/) 



■I-' ^ ra 2 «^ 

o i; -c i: ^ 

J- i/l o </> u 



>. 



fll <1) CT3 TO 
~ — OJ CD 



I/) 

OS rt 

•C '^ *- 






OQcQcQ:$:^Q:iOcQcj:> 



D 

E 
<-> .— 

O 



312 



Practical Farming 



(UOi 










d d 


"2 


VO - 00 


Xi 
at 
< 

c 

o 


O N - 

Lr\ (T\ -^ 
t> u^00 




O O O 


u 

(U 

•o 
>> 

t 


1- 
C 

t^ 

t- 

4, 

c 

c 

0. 

C 


o 

s 

•> 

1- UJ 

c 


> 

> 


^ 






1- o 






"^ -"^ -^ r^ N irs (S 



oooooooooooooo 



o o t^ o o ITS r^ rfoo 00 r^vD r^ q- 
<s-o--oo-o-oooo 

doddooddddddoo 



Tt•OO-"^-0000OON•<^«O 
66666660666666 






000000 C^VO o o vo - - o 

TTu-xt^M o — — 00 LTvOO rr\\0 00 
000 0^(Sir\O^OOt^Orr\rr\0^ 

00 c^oo 00 00 00 00 00 c^ i>oo r^oo oo 



■ taci 

P3 TT 



<u 



OVJ VJ 



^-00 



aj <D <U 03 



^ _2 D D. 55 

o 

C ™ 
O O O .iS O 



J3 
>. O J= 



> 

D. O 



O 



■k-J t^ rt OS •- 



^ .0 



UCQCOcjUUCJU^O-uoHHH 



Useful Tables for Constant Reference 313 



,Mi 



00 — \Q CO OD — "^0^0^ rrwO rfO r-^ — O — C^O vD t^ t^ r^ 
■^fS N •^■^LTNTJ-fN rA'^t^tS — rr>u~\— O O — mr) rr\fS 

0--000000000-OOC-000000 



iu<; 



— OOO — OmO — — r) — OOrAOCXD — OO — OO 

do — oooooooooooooooooooo 






ri O - O 


IN 


I/-. 00 




CO 00 


^\0 VO 


r^ Tfoo - 


O 


rr\ o 


Tj-vo 


r(^, C^ u~s (N 


(N 




CI 


— (Ts 


r^ ■- rrs 


Tj- — Lr\ — 


— 


- Tj- 


<s — 


O m ii~s O 


o 


o o 


o 


o o 


O O O 


O O n-s O 


o 


O O 


O O 



U O 



oo 
d 


^ o 
t--oo 


o o 


fS o 

o o 

o - 


o^ o 
o - 


Tf r^ rJ-oO 00 

- - o - o 


8 


o m o 


o - 


T|- C 
O^ o 


T 

d 


o 

o 


§ § 


8 








(N o c^oo o o 

ITS „ cv\o O CO 




o r^ 

rr\\D 







O u^OCO^ C^mO^O^O ''t" irsVi) Tf 00 t^ (S M rrs — D — i — , 

00 - - 00 00 00 00 r^oo c^oo c> r^ c^oo oo - o^oc^c^t^o 






o c c 

i- <u aj 

< CC CQ 



•B-o 

■*-' !_. to W 



.2- c^ >. 



03 oj O P en OJ D 



3 (/J rj 



3 _c 



3 "C 



TD 3 C 



o 

D- O 






Z3 a jz 



^ O 



314 



Practical Farming 






ir\ C^ O^ l^>. G^ O i^ O 



OOOOOOOO 



OOONOOOOOO 



<u<; 



OOOOOOOO 



ooococoooo 



o o 






Tf O^ rr\ u^ C^ irv TfOO 
r->oo - ro - - - - 

oooocooo 






c^ 






o 


o o o c 





00 <N — rrvOO u-\ rr\ O t^^ O rA 
t^MOO — — T}-ir\ii>O^LrsLr\-^ 


fSrfNO — OOOO 


O-O-^OMOOJSOOO 






VO — O covO — O^ O 
rr\ t^ rr\00 — O^O — 



(S O u~^ O u-\00 <N v£> 

r^\£) 00 vo 00 00 00 00 



(T\ O^ ir\ r->. 

00 r^oo 00 



o 



OJ 



< 



< < 



510 

C 
3 



OS 



,^ 1> (A) V. u 



aj 



8 = 



3 C 



U ~ w — 



OJ 1- 



lU 



< < 



^ ^ "c: X x ■;:: 'c « _o js as j; j:* 

— --JZ^JZJZJZ^ u. u. 3 >- >- 

caoouuuuuuucjuoo 



O 

S 4) 



0-3 



t/1 t/5 

C C 



JZOO 



Useful Tables for Constant Reference 315 









00 

d 



ooooooooooooo-o 



g^ (Nu-\tsrr\Tfr^r^M r^oo — oo c^ i^ -"^ c^ 

o^. I -OfSOOOOOO-^-^rrs-cqM 

ooddoooodooooo-d 






00 

o 



00 vo ii~v ii~\ 

d o o o 



00 T}- - vo CO o 

— — u-v I^ O O 

- - tt - d o 



— O — OO — — OOOOrTi— rrNiTNii^— O 






O itnvO « O O O cTvOO N "^ 
OOO <N C^O I'^fA-rr iTnOO 00 



00 [^00 rr\ rf vo 
irsOO 1^00 00 VO 



O \S 



O rA ltnOO 
rr\00 (S N 



•^' 2 2 ^ ^ ]2 



-Q -q OS 



3 C 



0) 



S >= 3 fe 









<U <L> 3 
- </i 4; XI -§ ■§ = 



(^ c^ cd ^ 3 

o) u a> ^ V. 



3 

C 



■*-» 4-J ^ 



<U c3 CTJ P3 



(U 



~ 1^ fii tij in c^ .a 



D-PlhDmD-iClCXcOcoOC-D-DuOQCL, 



316 



Practical Farming 









-doooo--oooooo 



■1-^' 


s 






























!n 


< 


r^ 


(N 


o 


l: 


ir\ 


G^ 


r^ 


t^ 


_ 


(N 


o 


G^ 


(N 00 


o 


moo 


1^ 


00 O 00 


<S 00 00 


1^00 00 


— 




o 

r' 


O 


O 


o 


o 


o 


O 


- 


- 


o 


o 


o 


O 


o 


o 



Tj- o rr\ rrs r-^ O 



— — (S — Li^rA— (S(S<s — — 



ir\ 


• rfN • 




kr\ 


• ir\ ■ 




r< 


^^ 





O OOO OOOOO fr\<S O t^u^l/^0 O 
O C^OO — si3\i:i m^ro — rrsr^ c^vo 

trs Tf O -"^ <S rr\00 00 "^00 "^ Tf Tf (N 



rt C <y 



— c -^ 






^^ 



l-n go OJ cu 

^ tz *- a • — — • •— . *-' >- ti ^ -C ^ o 









^'Z. 



2. £i '5^ 

Tf Tl" ir\ 



OOO 



^ <p 


ir\\^ r^ 




Cv O^ - 


" m 






(N 00 — 






0,3 





g-a o 

C C 3 

v- I- O 

O O 1- 

U CJ O 



Useful Tables for Constant Reference 317 













1 


c-c 


•^ ITN Tj- O^ 


cj rt 


fr>v£) lJ^ O 


vPh 


O O O O 


.13 










<o UN r-, cs 

\£) 00 u-sOO 








O O O O 


■s c 






u-nOO - 00 


o O 


LTSVO M O 


Ui 




u -^ 


— — <s m 


Oh^ 




J3 






"SS 






^ 

c 


^ 


<s 00 


<U 








«s 


— <s 








<u 






a. 






c"2 


CA O n^ u^ 


"^ (N 00 00 






h'° 


rr\ Tj- OsQO 


(ilS 




























o 












3 












73 












o 
























CU 












, 




































s 














>> 










CU 












u, 






C3 . 


3 






^ t- o _: 




a c rt 




c 
a 

2 
o 


o 
> 




E 

Oh 





v-i o 






u 3 


o 


rf\ C^ O 00 


^ 


_ 


O 


Tf 


■<i-oo 


o 


o 


o 


C^ ITS — (-r\ 




o 


ir\ 


u^ 


r^ 


— 


(N 


rA 




M 00 00 00 00 


cr> 


u^ 


(S 


fS 


„ 


a^ o 


O 










l^ 















~ O O ^00 VO V£J ■ " 



o o d d - 



o O - o - o 



d d 



vDOO rrsC^frNCA — 00v£> C^u^0^r>. 
O O^rrscs Tt-O rrv<s <S0O C^M^ 

0000--0<S-«S00n 



irsvo O VO ir\^ 00 rrsOO v£i v^ t^ C^ 
O — t^csmrAOM — MMO — 



(S 




rrs 


CX) 


<s 


O 


(N 


l/^ 


O 


rr 


o 


00 


(N 


I^ 


-^ 


c^ 


vO 


ir\ 


N 


(TN O O 


o 


M 


O 


N 


m 


Tf 


(YNVO 


M 


N 


o 




























C4> 
-a ^ 



</> r3 c3 



b£ !aO 



-a 



.t: c 



c c 

53^ 









u3:ooScQcQcdQi^^5 5 



318 



Practical Farming 






(S:^ 



U o 



00 O rr\ rr\ irs — 



O ----- O 



fS O - - - O 



SO O ir\ ir\ t~» O 






v£) M VO iTN rr\ O 



- 1^00 r^ o o 
00 - 00 r>. -^ UN 



i^ o 00 r^ o o 
- - 00 






c3 OS OJ rt 

E E 11 ^ 



T3 -O 



■(-> -(-I V5 



_ o 



^6 



rt 



D. 



U 



J J a- < 





00 a^ 


rAV£) 00 


S-2 


o o 


O O O 


o o 


■ •a 
P. 


Cv o 


"N r^ M- 


2-vg 


o o 


o o o 


o o 



(5:2 



u o 



rr\vr> O 00 "N cs rr\ 
i/N ir> T}- -^ — — o^ 



O O O O O O rr\ 



"N O O O O UN O 

r^oo UN r^vo — — 



O O O O O O «S 



ir\ ir\ O r^ O UN 
CS O UN C^ — M 



00 O^ r^ C^ C^ t^ riN 



1-1 



E 

E f 

CJ CQ ::> 03 CJ 



Useful Tables for Constant Reference 319 



g-S tTOO m -"a- O^ -^ C^ C^ ■<^00 u^ I-^OO Tf — — (s ir\00 O M rr\ 
o<« -(sOrf\------cs-----00000 

doodddodd-ddododdododo 






o-o-ooqoo'^-o-oooooooo- 
0666006666666606666666 



Of^^OC^Orf^O^^OC^c^OvOOOOOO — 000 






OQQOOOOOOOOOOOO 
000000000000000 



000000 
000000 



0000000000000000000000 



T3 y 

n q <^ 



^^ 



^' ^ 



O v; 



-^ ^ rt o 

- - Xi ^ 
0) (U 






-a 
15 o 

"o o 



-a 
o 

O t3 

^ 2 



i^jnjrOo----t5J2JS tij rt ri rj <n <n 

<uuQQXd::s:s:^oooooo 



C- O- CU D- 



c ^ 

D- CD 



320 



Practical Farming 






a;s 



o o - o - o 






CJ3 
01 CL, 



.•T3 



^£ 



a V 
(u bo 

O O 
•-I ti 



O « 00 o o o 



vS 



rj- ir\ tT 



— rr\ rr\ M (S O 






O — N — M O 



O rr\v£) mvo O 



t/) 



to 



</i J2 



t/i 



uo 00 



00^^^—- IT - O 



t/i 



§ ^ S o SJ.S 

K c/D -J Oa CO J 



c 

3 
O 






S'c3< 












o o o o 



o o o o o o o 



tr\ o^ « O ►- kr\ t^ 



(D 

>_ r3 op 



C O 



.5 
'c 

o ^ 

E "bb ^ .^ 

E'^ ° -^ 
'^ - - T? 

M- T3 T3 
O O O 



5 6 2 



2 ^h 



go <u S S »- 
3 a; rt ^ ^ "" 



-n -o -o 



+-1 1/2 



O f 



Z on Q Q u oa Q 



Useful Tables for Constant Reference 321 



■*-> 
u o 



cr\ — 
O O 



rt«3; 






O O 



ooooooooooo 



vD rf^ rr\v£) vo N I^ O <S its — 



o o 



C^wfi 



00 mir\Ti-MVO M I^O rr\ 

oooooooooo 






o 



o o o o 



O O 



^ 


N 


rf\ 


o 

■!-> 


O 


O 


ir\ 


l/V 




« 


_ 


M 



D-P. 



"C lU (J 

2 -^ -M 

■^ <^ <n 
o O- B- 
O o 



U 



■3:2 

c/i c/) 



4J D 

o 2 £ 

a. D- a; js: 

-^ ^1 ^ 

— V) a. ^ 

J2 i2 ^ o 

gu U. Un CQ 



x: 
o 

CL 
>_ 
<u 
D, 

3 



— a 





c 
o 


o 


n 


'U 


ID 


c 
o 


c 

2 


(1> 


oa 


C3 


en 



5^ ui 
Oh *:; Q 



rt 



O hDW) o- 

S; </^ 5 1) 4-> ■»-> ^ 

"5 e^-2 ■!■§.:£ "^ 



«^ « 



<U (- "I 



322 



Practical Farming 









O Q^^ u^ O ir\ O O tr\VD m rA 1 


S5 


— ■<ri^rr\ir\N(NO — fS — rr 


<s 00 d o o d - o d - d ri d d 


u 


o o 




— ITS 


s 


t^ 


• ir\ t^ 


■ O-'O^ rr\ O -rf rr\ 


4J '3 


ITN — 


■ 00 - 




— iTS O 


■ d d 


■_ " 6 - o 6 6 6 


O O 






a, -^ 


— ITS 






^-ojJS 
































g|^ 
































o*C 






























































































0, 
































• ojrs 
































■*-»>--< o 
































s-s<j 
































ors . 
































^ Id n 
































0) > O 
































^<£ 




































O^OO 0■^"^000"^lr^OC^ 


■M C 

C 4> 




O O 




(Ts OO — O — — OfAO — OO 


fc.^ 




O 


0.2: 




M 








JZ 
































cyi 






























0) • 




















aJ . 








^ : 




















^ 


■23 


-6 
























> 


■io 


<u 


uo 
























^ : 


?! C a> il — aj aj 






. flj 

-o -c -c S: 

.X (/^ c/5 ^ 
— (U 4J ^ 




<U («q4JV-.<4-i O u t- 




o >- 2: c 




"~EcE .<«'*-3(U • 


lA >*-<+- CT5 




r30fc<u3rt-a3j_,^ -T33T3? 






■T3 
O 

1 




(2^ 




c 
X 


in 

o 

X 


1- 

o 

X 


r3 

E 

3 

3: 


r3 

E 

3 


c 
o 


a 

aj 

JZ 


o. 

<U 
JZ 
C/5 


0) 

c 

CO 


c 

CQ 





Useful Tables for Constant Reference 323 



en 



o 




■4-> 




<4-l 


D 


o 


k5 


fl 


<: 
^ 


-(-' 




<u 


[x< 


=3 


o 


^ 


w 


OJ 


J3 


B 


^ 


o 


> 


>H 




M-l 


Q 


W 


:z; 


W) 


< 


c 


c_l 


o 


t) 


a 


o 


o 


S 




< 


(U 




J3 




H 





^1 


O 00 a^ rj - 
rrs — <s O « 


■4J 

'5 

uT 

•a 
a 

3 




0_ 


is 

1 


q -"too N fs 
k6 -^ 6 6 6^ 

«9- 


>> 

G] 

Q 


n V) tn V) tn 

■fcJ ■*-> •<-> •!-> -M 

c c c c c 

^ ^ c^ ^ ^ 
O <J o o o 

« cs t^ O vo 

I>.V£) VO 00 t^ 


Q 
u 

V 

& 


34.1 pounds 
67.8 pounds 
83.6 pounds 
74.1 pounds 
48.8 pounds 


< 


3 

5 


Sheep 

Calves 

Pigs 

Cows ': 

Horses 



OEC 2 3^0/ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



DDOESflbElSti 



